For the second consecutive day, more than 5,000 COVID-19 cases were reported in Maharashtra on Thursday. 5,182 new infections and 115 deaths were reported in the last 25 hours, pushing their respective tallies to 18,37,358 and 47,472 so far. The number of recovered patients has crossed the 17,000- mark. 8,066 patients were discharged across the state, taking the total count to 17,03,274.
Mumbai, meanwhile, recorded 878 new infections and 18 fatalities on Thursday, increasing the corresponding counts to 2,83,689 and 10,857 so far. Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said, “It is expected that the ‘mobile population’ will see higher infections, especially respiratory or air-borne infections, especially after plans to unlock have started in full swing. The state’s interventions for senior citizens, such as door-to-door surveys and My Family, My Responsibility have helped us identify senior citizens most prone to catching the infection. Subsequent timely health interventions have helped control the infection in senior citizens to a large extent.”
The officials also said that the state’s daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases was 0.21%, far lower than states like Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The state’s doubling time is 225 days now compared to India’s 159 days. “Our recovery rate too has improved to 92%, which till September end was around 78%. Despite a high patient load, our recovery numbers are almost at par with the national average of 94%,” said a state official.
