Surge in cases, Maha breaches 8-lakh mark
Mumbai reports 1,142 new infections and 35 deaths
The state breached the 8-lakhmark on Tuesday with 15,765 new cases and 320 deaths. There was a sudden rise in the number of coronavirus cases. The total count touched 8,08,306, with 24,903 deaths so far.
Of the 320 deaths, 214 were in the past 48 hours, another 56 deaths were from the past one week, while the rest 50 were from the period before. Of the total deaths, 87 were from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), 84 in Pune, 43 in Kolhapur, 37 in Nashik, 25 in Nagpur, 14 in Latur, 19 in Aurangabad and 11 in Akola.
Mumbai, meanwhile, reported 1,142 new infections and 35 covid-19 deaths, taking the total count to 1,46,947, with 7,690 deaths. Of the total Covid-19 cases recorded in the city so far, 20,065 are active cases. The case fatality ratio (CFR) of the city is 5.2%, and the recovery rate stands at 81%. The month of August turned out to be bad in terms of the absolute number of Covid-19 infections and deaths reported. However, state officials said the rate of infection compared to July has been marginally lower in August. In August alone, Maharashtra saw 3,70,423 Covid-19 cases and 9,589 fatalities. The month of July saw a lower number of cases and deaths reported with 247,357 cases and 7,139 deaths in the month. The cases reported in July constituted 58% of the state’s total cases, while August contributed 46% of the total cases, displaying a gradual slowdown in the rate of infection.
Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said, “August is showing good signs, though the absolute numbers were high. The weekly growth rate is around 2.15%, the doubling rate has improved to 37 days. If we look at the case fatality rate (CFR) of August, it is 2.6%; lower than the state’s overall average at 3.10%. The growth rate in Mumbai and Thane region is under 1%.” Maharashtra carried out over two million tests in the month of August. According to the state health department data, it tested 20,08,831 samples in August. The positivity rate in the month was 18.34%.
So far, a total of 41.38 lakh tests have been conducted in the state, of which nearly 19 per cent were positive. There are 13.55 lakh people in home quarantine and over 35,722 in institutional quarantine.