Mumbai: The number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra crossed the 6,000-mark within 24 hours, with the state reporting 778 new cases and 14 deaths on Thursday, the largest single-day spike so far. The total number of cases are now 6,247; 283 people have died while 840 have recovered so far.
Most cases were in Mumbai (552), with the city accounting for more than half of the total cases in the state (6,427), at 4,232. Of the 14 fatalities reported on Thursday, six were from Mumbai, five from Pune and one each from Navi Mumbai, Nandurbar and Dhule.
According to the public health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the city reported 478 corona cases and eight deaths on Thursday, the highest single day surge so far. The total number of cases in the city is 4,232, with 169 deaths so far. Civic officials attributed the giant jump to the number of cases being reported by private laboratories.
“Of the 478 new cases, 279 had tested positive between April 20 and April 21 in private laboratories and the numbers were updated on Tuesday. However, 181 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours,” said an official.
Anup Kumar Yadav, director, National Health Mission (NHM), Maharashtra, attributed the surge in the number of cases to the declaration of pending test results from the government-approved private laboratories.
“We have to verify the data of all the Covid-19 positive cases, and it is a time-consuming process. Private laboratories send us the data first, and to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation afterwards.
Therefore, at times, there are discrepancies in the reporting of positive cases,” he said. “Information on co-morbidities in two deaths is not yet available. Seven of the 12 patients (58%) had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease,” informed a health official.
Of the 96,369 laboratory samples, 89,561 were negative while 6,427 tested positives for coronavirus until Thursday. So far, 840 patients have been discharged. Currently, 1,14,398 people are in home quarantine and 8,702 people are in institutional quarantine.
