Maha tally crosses 60k, toll over 2,000

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s Covid-19 case tally crossed the 60,000-mark and death toll went past 2,000 on Friday, but the state also witnessed recovery of 8,381 patients, the most to be discharged in 24 hours. The state’s recovery rate rose to 43.38% from 31.26% on Thursday, with the total of recovered patients going up to 26,997.

While the state reported 2,682 new cases, taking its tally to 62,228, the fatalities increased to 2,098 with 116 deaths recorded on Friday. Of these, according to the state health department, 46 deaths were from the past two days and the rest from the period between May 16 and May 26.

Mumbai saw its Covid-19 case count rise to 36,932 with an addition of 1,447 cases and its toll rose to 1,173 with 38 more fatalities reported on Friday.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said the recovery rate improving was “a positive sign”. “The protocol change is one of the reasons for better recovery rate. But we are sending patients home only after ensuring they have no symptoms,” he said.

Dr Avinash Supe, former dean at KEM Hospital and a member of the expert committee appointed by the state to study and analyse data and recommend new measures, said, the recovery rate had improved owing to segregation of patients and subsequent line of treatment. “The change in discharge protocol by ICMR is one of the reasons for the improvement… it is [similar policy] followed all over the world. The patients are discharged only after ensuring that there is no risk of them spreading the virus. It’s a good sign that although the number of cases is rising, the recovery rate has improved and even the mortality rate has improved to 3.25,” said Supe.

The state, meanwhile, is likely to further relax lockdown curbs in red zones from Monday. In a meeting with the Cabinet secretary, chief secretary Ajoy Mehta discussed the state’s exit plan from the ongoing lockdown.