Maharashtra has added more than one lakh corona cases in just four days breaching 11 lakh-mark, with 23,365 new infections being reported on Wednesday, increasing the progressive count to 11,21,221. In the last 15 days, the state has recorded over 3 lakh cases (3,05,243 cases) and the average number of daily cases comes to 20,349. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 death toll has increased to 30,883, with 474 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours. It is the second-highest single-day death reported.
Of the deaths, 335 are from the last 48 hours and 102 are from last week, while the rest 37 deaths are from the period before last week. Of the total deaths, 115 in MMR, followed by 100 in Pune, 70 in Nashik, 65 in Kolhapur, 47 in Nagpur, 37 in Latur, 23 in Akola, and 16 in Aurangabad, while one death was reported from other states.
The high number of casualties continues to be a concern for state authorities as it is still the highest in the country. In the past fifteen days, the average number of deaths a day in the state went up to 371. The situation appears to be getting difficult with every passing month as the average is constantly on the rise.
In August, the average number of deaths a day was 309, while in July, June, May and April, they were 282, 187, 59 and 14, revealed statistics.
In August, the state reported a total of 9,589 deaths, the highest in a month. The state has recorded 5,569 deaths in 15 days of this month, indicating that maximum Covid casualties are going to be reported in September.
Mumbai, meanwhile again recorded more than 2,000 cases, with 2,352 new cases and 50 fatalities were reported on Wednesday. Taking the total count to 1,75,886 with 8,277 deaths so far.
Public health experts said the state seems to be moving towards herd immunity, but at a big price in terms of large numbers of deaths. Besides, the health infrastructure in rural areas, where Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, is still too weak to deal with the situation. “We seem to be looking at herd immunity by way of natural infection and not through vaccination. In such a case it is going to be difficult to control the situation and have to pay a heavy price by losing the lives of a large number of people to Covid-19,” he said.
So far, a total of 55.06 lakh tests have been conducted in the state, of which nearly 20.36 per cent were positive. There are 17.53 lakh, people, in-home quarantine and over 36,462 in institutional quarantine.
