Maharashtra on Saturday added 22,084 new infections and 391 COVID-19 deaths, increasing the progressive count to 10,37,765, with 29,115 fatalities so far. Till now 7,28,512 patients have been discharged across the state, with 13,489 being recovered in the last 24 hours.
Of the 391 deaths, 280 are from the last 48 hours and 70 are from last week, while the rest 41 deaths are from the period before last week. Of the total deaths, 101 were from Pune, followed by 77 in MMR, 63 in Kolhapur, 43 in Nagpur, 40 in Nashik, 27 in Aurangabad and 19 in Akola, while three deaths were from other states.
Meanwhile, for the fourth consecutive day, Mumbai recorded more than 2,000 corona cases on Saturday, with 2,321 new infections being reported, taking the tally to 1,67,6O8. It is the second-highest single-day jump recorded so far. However, the Covid-19 death toll has now increased to 8,106, with 42 fatalities being reported in the last 24 hours.
State officials expect the number of daily infections to increase further across the state as the government has announced fresh relaxations and with more people likely to step out of their homes during the upcoming festival season.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, communicable diseases prevention control and technical committee of the state, said the cases are unlikely to come down in the near future. “With fresh relaxations and increased activities, a significant number of people have been exposed to the virus and that has resulted in a surge in cases. They will continue to get exposed and rise in cases will continue until the vulnerable section of the society is covered. Also, coronavirus has spread in most of the rural areas,” Salunkhe said.
Senior health officials hold citizens responsible for making the situation worse stating a major reason for the increase in cases is irresponsible behaviour by people. Everyone is now aware of what coronavirus is, but they just don’t care to take precautions. They don’t understand that the government has its own limitations. “It has been more than six months and the entire health infrastructure and staff are completely exhausted. Until and unless people won’t come forward and take the pandemic seriously, the situation may not improve,” he said.
So far, a total of 51.64 lakh tests have been conducted in the state, of which nearly 20 per cent were positive. There are 16.52 lakh people in-home quarantine and over 38,275 in institutional quarantine.
