AMBANI TO SET UP FAMILY COUNCIL FOR SUCCESSION PLAN LET LAW TAKE ITS COURSE IN SUSHANT CASE: SWARA Daily tests inch closer 413 deaths take Covid toll to 19,063; state tally is 560,126 to targeted 1mn mark

MUMBAI : Maharashtra reported 413 more Covid-19 fatalities on Thursday, taking the state’s death toll up to 19,063, while 11,813 fresh cases pushed up the tally of infections to 560,126. Of the 413 deaths, 288 were from the past 48 hours, 74 from last week and 51 from the period before last week.

Mumbai recorded 1,200 new Covid-19 cases, taking its tally of infections to 127,556. The city’s toll rose by 48 to 6,991. While cases in Mumbai have plateaued over the past month, Pune district, which comprises Pune City, Pune Rural and Pimpri-Chinchwad, remains the worst affected in terms of daily rise in cases and fatalities. On Thursday, Pune City reported 1,148 new cases, Pimpri-Chinchwad 848 and Pune Rural 396. The district’s tally is inching closer to Mumbai’s with 122,020 cases against 127,556. Mumbai has 19,314 active cases, while for Pune district, the number is 40,225. Thane district has 19,589 active cases.

The state’s case fatality rate (CFR) has continued to remain high, 3.4%, against the national CFR of 1.98%. According to a state health department report, which was submitted on August 10, Solapur city has the highest fatality rate of 7.12%, followed by Malegaon city (7.03%), Mumbai (5.51%), Malegaon (5.47%) and Nandurbar (4.96%).

The rise in daily fatalities over the past few days and the state’s failure to bring down CFR has been a major cause for concern. In its letter to district and civic administrations, in the first week of July, the state health department had directed them to put in efforts to bring the positivity rate below 10% and fatality rate to less than 1%.

Narendra Modi