MAHA COVID TOLL CROSSES 100K MARK; 12,557 NEW CASES REPORTED

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Sunday crossed the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after 618 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours. The state contributes 28.87% to the country’s fatality rate due to the viral disease, accounting for 100,130 of the total 349,247 deaths.

The state witnessed 12,557 new cases on Sunday, taking the cumulative tally to 5,831,781. This is the lowest daily number of cases recorded in the state in nearly three months. However, the country’s worst-affected state became the first in the country to record more than 100,000 deaths on Sunday.

Only six countries, including India, have seen more people die than Maharashtra.

According to data collated by worldometers.info, the United States of America tops the grim list with 612,209 fatalities, followed by Brazil (472,629) India (349,247), the UK (127,836), Italy (126,472) and Russia (123,436).

State officials attributed the high number of deaths to more cases and transparent reporting of the data.

“In 2020, we had 19 lakh cases, now (this year) we have nearly 40 lakh cases. Nearly 50,000 deaths happened in the first year and we had an equal number of deaths. So, it is important to see that even after cases doubled, the fatalities remained the same. However, the deaths in this year have come in a shorter time,” said Dr Avinash Supe, chairman of the state’s death audit committee.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said the government was taking a “calculated risk” by relaxing the restrictions in the state. He added that people need to take care of themselves.