There were 25,833 new corona cases in the state on Thursday, the highest single-day number since the pandemic outbreak in March last year, pushing the total caseload to 23,96,340. The previous highest was 24,886, reported on September 11, 2020. The tally of Covid fatalities in the state is 53,138, with 54 people dying in the last 24 hours.
This is the seventh-highest one-day spike in infection in Maharashtra since the outbreak of the pandemic. All the previous daily highs were recorded in September 2020 -- on September 11, the state had reported 24,886 cases; on September 17, the single-day tally was 24,619 cases. The third, fourth and fifth-highest figures were reported on September 9 (23,816), September 6 (23,350) and September 10 (23,446).
In Mumbai too, there were 2,877 new cases reported on Thursday, also the highest single-day surge since the pandemic outbreak. The previous high was on October 7, 2020, when 2,848 cases had been reported. There were eight deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 3,52,835, with 11,555 fatalities till now. The previous high of 2,377 cases was reported just a day before. The recovery rate has dropped to 91 per cent from the 94 per cent it had stood at, for the last three months.
The doubling rate of the city has also dropped to 136 days from the earlier145 days just a day before, while the weekly growth rate has increased to 0.51 per cent.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said, “Lockdown is not on the agenda for Mumbai right now. But restrictions related to following rules are being implemented very strictly. Maintaining social distancing and wearing masks at public places are mandatory. The BMC is showing zero tolerance towards anyone breaking these rules or even home quarantine. A lockdown is mainly imposed to get health infrastructure ready, educate people and standardise treatment protocol.”
