For the third consecutive day, Maharashtra, on Saturday, reconciled its COVID-19 fatalities data at 1,606, taking the total death toll to 1,08,333. However, 360 people succumbed to the deadly virus across the state in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, there was a marginal drop in the daily COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. 10,697 new cases were reported in the state, pushing its tally to 58,98,550 cases so far.
Mumbai, on the other hand, witnessed a marginal rise in its daily COVID-19 cases on Saturday. 733 new cases and 18 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. The total count now stands at 7,15,879 with 15,164 deaths so far. Meanwhile, the doubling rate has increased to 633 days and the weekly growth rate has dropped to 0.11 per cent.
Dr Avinash Supe, chairman of the state’s death audit committee said, “Just because a patient has been diagnosed with COVID-19, doesn’t mean the cause of death is the virus. If a patient has severe comorbidities like chronic kidney disease or has recently undergone organ transplantation that has compromised the immunity, we have to check all the medical reports of the patient before declaring it a COVID-19 death. We have to categorise such deaths by following the scientific parameters laid down by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and World Health Organisation (WHO). This process often takes between six and eight days.”
