The health authorities in Maharashtra went into a tizzy on Tuesday, as the state recorded an alarmingly high 17,864 Covid-19 infections and 87 deaths.
A day after it witnessed 15,051 fresh infections and 48 deaths, the infections peaked to a new high of 17,864, which is higher than the highest caseload of 15,817 registered October 7 last year.
There has not been any let up in the increasing number of Covid-19 cases ever since the advent of the second wave of pandemic that is sweeping the state since early this month. Tuesday was the fifth consecutive day when there were 15,000-plus cases.
With 17,864 fresh cases reported on Tuesday, the total infections in the state climbed from 23,29,464 to 23,47,328. Similarly, with 87 new deaths the Covid-19 toll in the state went up from 52909 to 52,996.
As 9,510 patients were discharged from the hospitals across the state after full recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March last year went up to 21,54,253. The recovery rate in the state dropped marginally from 92.07 per cent to 91.77 per cent.
With five fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai rose from 11,539 to 11,543, while the infected cases went up by 1922 to trigger a jump in the infections from 3,45,675 to 3,47,597.
Meanwhile, the number of “active cases” total cases in the state went up from 1,30,547 to 1,38,813. The fatality rate in the state dropped from 2.27 per cent to 2.26 per cent.
There are a maximum of 28817 “active” cases in Pune, followed by Nagpur (19,558), Mumbai (13862), Thane (13150), Nashik (8677), Aurangabad (8877), Jalgaon (4848), Amravati (3743) and Akola (3061).
Pune district, which continued to be the worst-affected city-district in Maharashtra, saw the total number of cases increase from 4,41,745 to 4,45,319, while the total number of deaths in Pune rose from 8144 to 8158.
Thane district remained in the third spot --after Pune and Mumbai – after the total number of infections rose from 2,94,094 to 2,95,494, while the total deaths climbed from 5876 to 5878.
Of the 1,77, 15, 522 samples sent to laboratories, 23,47,328 have tested positive (13.25 per cent) for COVID-19 until Tuesday.
Currently, 6,52,531 people are in home quarantine while 6,067 people are in institutional quarantine.