Maharashtra again zooms to over 6K Covid cases, sees 198 new deaths

After two days of relief, Maharashtra on Wednesday again shot to the the 6,000-plus range of new daily Covid-19 cases though deaths fell below the 200 mark.

The new Covid cases in the state increased from Tuesday's 5,134 to 6,603 now.

With Tuesday's 198 fatalities, the state death toll climbed to 9,448 and the total cases zoomed to 223,724 till date, both being the highest in the country.

The day's figures indicate a death recorded roughly every 7 minutes and a whopping 275 new cases notched every hour in the state.

The state's recovery rate improved marginally to 55.06 per cent, while the mortality rate remained unchanged at 4.22 per cent.

The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 91,065 are active cases.

On the positive side, 4,634 fully cured patients returned home on Wednesday - taking the number of those discharged today to 123,192

Of the latest fatalities, Mumbai alone accounted for 62 deaths, pulling up the city toll to 5,064 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients shot up by 1,347 cases to touch 87,856.

There were 36 fatalities each in Thane and Pune, 10 in Jalgaon, eight each in Satara, Aurangabad and Solapur, six in Raigad, five in Nashik, three each in Palghar, Kolhapur and Jalna, two each in Sangli, Nanded and Akola, and one each in Ahmednagar, Nagpur, Yavatmal and Beed.

After touring Thane for two days, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis launched a tour of a few districts in northern Maharashtra where he again called for more tests, ventilators, ICU beds, and other facilities to curb the Covid cases in the mofussil areas of the state.

The MMR (Thane division) continues to see deaths and cases pile up, with a total of 6,759 Covid-19 fatalities and a staggering 3,808 new patients, pushing up the number of positive cases to 155,578.

Thane's cases have shot past the 50K mark to touch 52,733 with 1,417 fatalities - to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district raced past the 30,000 mark by notching 31,704 patients and 962 deaths till now.

However, the Pune division (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) - which has recorded 36,656 patients and 1,344 fatalities - remains behind MMR and Thane district.

Nashik division has 668 fatalities and 13,091 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 353 deaths and 8,485 cases, and Akola division with 152 fatalities and 3,366 cases.

Kolhapur division has notched 62 deaths and 2,573 patients, Latur 63 fatalities and 1,464 cases, and finally, Nagpur division recorded 21 deaths and 2,358 cases.

While all the eight divisions in the state reported deaths and new cases, Chandrapur and Bhandara remain only two districts with zero Covid deaths so far.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 638,762, while those in institutional quarantine went up to 47,072.