For 5th time in 6 days, 5,000+ new corona cases in state

With 198 COVID-19 fatalities, the death toll in Maharashtra went past the 8,000-mark while for the fifth time in six days, the number of new cases reported in a single day crossed the 5,000-mark. In the last 24 hours, there were 5,537 cases, the highest single-day surge so far. The progressive count is currently 1,80,298, with 8,053 deaths.

“Sixty-nine of the 198 deaths occurred in the last 48 hours while 129 deaths were from last month, updated to the progressive count on Tuesday,” said State Surveillance Officer Dr Pradip Awate.

Of these 129 deaths, 69 were recorded in Mumbai, 26 in Mira-Bhayandar, 17 in Thane Municipal Corporation, four in Kalyan-Dombivali, three each in Jalgaon, Pune and one each Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi, Palghar, Vasai-Virar, Dhule and Akola.

According to the public health department of the BMC, there were 1,511 new cases and 75 deaths in the city on Tuesday, bringing the total count to 77,658, with 4,556 deaths until now. The mortality rate for the city is 5.61 per cent.

“Six of the 75 deaths occurred in the last 48 hours, while 69 were from the previous period. However, 79 patients had comorbidities,” said Dr Daksha Shah, executive health officer, BMC.

Meanwhile, the BMC has embarked on a ‘Save Lives Strategy’ to curb the mortality rate, which has increased from 3 per cent to 5.85 per cent, after a data reconciliation exercise conducted to add deaths previously deemed nonCovid deaths. “Three factors are crucial to analyse deaths—conditions in which a patient is admitted, whether the right treatment was administered, and if high-end antivirals were accessible,” said Dr Avinash Supe, chairman of the state death review panel.