Mumbai: Forty-eight new Covid deaths were reported in Maharashtra on Saturday, the highest number of single-day deaths reported so far. With 1,165 new coronavirus cases the total positive count has increased to 20,228 with 779 deaths until now. With over 1,000 new cases being recorded each day, Maharashtra has crossed 20,000 mark in the last 10 days.
It accounts for one third of the country’s total patient count. The state has collected 2.27 lakh laboratory samples of swabs and 20,228 of them is positive for Covid-19, taking the positivity rate to 8.8 per cent.
“While India’s overall rate of Covid-19 patients recovering stands at 29.3 per cent (16,540 have recovered), Maharashtra lags behind with 18 per cent recovery rate — 3,800 of 20,228 cases have recovered and discharged from hospitals,” said Dr Anup Kumar Yadav, commissioner (health services), Maharashtra.
Twenty-seven of the 43 deaths were recorded in Mumbai, nine in Pune, eight in Malegaon and one each in Pune district, Akola, Nanded and Amravati. However, eight deaths in Malegaon city occurred between April 25 and May 8 which was confirmed on Saturday.
“Information regarding comorbidities of 9 patients who died is not available yet. 28 out of the 39 patients (72%) had high risk comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease,” said Dr Pradip Awate, state surveillance officer.
According to the state health department, Mumbai has recorded 722 new cases, accruing a total of 12,864 cases so far and the death toll rising to 489, with 27 deaths on Saturday. “Due to the reconciliation of 178 patients shown in BMC region as per the ICMR portal since May 7 is in process which have not been included in the table above.
In the last 24 hours, the city has recorded 722 corona cases and 203 patients were discharged,” he added. Meanwhile, the central government has decided to run a clinical trial for plasma convalescent therapy in five hospitals of Maharashtra.
Of the 2,27,804 laboratory samples, 2,06,481 tested negative and 20,228 positive until now. So far, 3,800 patients have been discharged after full recovery. Currently, 2,41,290 people are in home quarantine and 13,976 people are in institutional quarantine.
