Maha crosses 20k cases with 1,165 new infections

MUMBAI: Maharashtra reported 1,165 Covid-19 cases on Saturday to cross the 20,000 infection mark and also registered the highest single-day fatalities with 48 deaths. The state capital of Mumbai recorded 722 cases, taking the tally in India’s worst-affected city to 12,864.

The spike came on a day the new commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Iqbal Singh Chahal said his two priorities are to minimise the number of cases in Mumbai and have the city prepared for the upcoming monsoon season.

Chahal, an 1989 batch IAS officer, took charge late on Friday after the state government transferred previous BMC commissioner Parveen Pardeshi to the urban development department.

Maharashtra reported its first Covid-19 case on March 9 and took nearly 53 days to reach the 10,000 mark. The next 10,000 cases were registered in just nine days.

The state health department said 178 patients from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were added to the Indian Council of Medical Research data of cases on its portal, but the reconciliation of the figures by the state was yet to be done. The state also stated that since the collection of data was a progressive process, the numbers could vary.

Of the 48 deaths registered on Saturday, 27 were in Mumbai, nine in Pune and eight in Malegaon in Nashik district. Pune rural, Nanded, Akola and Amravati saw one death each. Twenty seven of the patients who died on Saturday were above 60 years of age, while 18 were in the 40-59 age group. At least 28 of them had high-risk comorbidities.

The mortality rate in the state stood at 3.83%, down from 7.21% on April 12, but the number of deaths is increasing. The country’s mortality rate hovers around 3.32%. According to a report by the medical education and drugs department, the highest (21.91%) chunk of patients are between 21 and 30 years, followed by 31 to 40 age group (21%).