In state, new cases well past 6,000-mark on Wed

There was a 29 per cent rise in the number of new corona cases in the state as compared to the day before, with 6,603 new infections and 198 deaths being recorded on Wednesday. With this, the total progressive count is 2,23,724, with 9,448 deaths so far, while 1,23,192 COVID patients have been discharged from various hospitals across the state, with 4,634 patients having recovered in the last 24 hours.

Of the 198 deaths, 107 were in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), 52 in Pune division, 16 in Nashik division, 11 in Aurangabad division, five in Kolhapur, three each in Latur and Akola and one in Nagpur.

Across the city too the number of new cases surged on Wednesday as compared to the day before, with 1,387 new cases and 62 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total positive count is now 87,856, with 5,064 deaths, while 3,296 patients have recovered and been discharged from various hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,18,558 so far. As the monsoon has set in, civic officials have now intensified fever surveys.

“Teams that were working on Covid-19 contact tracing are also checking for symptoms of other illnesses like dengue, malaria or leptospirosis. Till now, we have not seen a spike in water-borne diseases,” said Swapnaja Kshirsagar, ward officer, F-south.

She said the insecticide, stormwater drains and health departments were actively working in waterlogging prone spots. Currently, there are 114 laboratories for Covid diagnosis in the state – 64 government and 50 private. Of the 11,61,311 laborator y samples, 2,23,723 had tested positive (18.77%) until Wednesday.