Maharashtra Reports Over 2,000 New Cases For Ten Consecutive Days, State’s Covid-19 Tally Reaches 54,758

Maharashtra on Tuesday (26 May) notched a record 97 deaths, up by 21 over the previous high of 76 fatalities recorded last Tuesday (19 May), health officials said.

The latest death toll includes a whopping 72 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) alone, besides 2,091 new cases that were reported from across the state on Tuesday. This comes to roughly one death every 15 minutes, and an average 87 new cases recorded every hour.

The state has been recording 50-plus fatalities and over 2,000 new patients daily for the past 10 days now. The previous highest figure of infections was 3,041 cases on 24 May.

With 97 fatalities, the state's death toll has touched 1,792 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased from 52,667 on Monday (25 May) to 54,758 on Tuesday.

The health department said that of the total number of cases declared on Tuesday, 36,004 were active cases -- swelling by 826 over Monday's 35,178.

Of the total 97 fatalities, 39 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city's death toll up from Monday's 1,026 to 1,065 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,002 cases to touch 32,974 on Tuesday.

Mumbai's congested Dharavi slum continued to be a major hotspot with 38 new cases getting reported on Tuesday, taking the total number of infectees to 1,621, while the death toll remained static at 59.

Besides Mumbai's 39 deaths, there were 33 fatalities in Thane (Thane City, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Mira-Bhayander), 8 in Pune, 7 in Solapur, 5 in Aurangabad, 3 in Nashik (Malegaon) and one each in Ratnagiri and Nagpur.

The deceased comprised 63 men and 34 women, and nearly 67 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problem and asthma.

On the positive side, 1,168 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged to 16,954.

Maharashtra Police recorded 2 more deaths of their personnel, taking the total toll to 20, besides 1,889 infectees, including 1,031 active cases.

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh dismissed rumours that the state planned to deploy Indian Army in the two worst-hit cities -- Mumbai and Pune -- in view of the Covid-19 pandemic situation there.

"We have come to know of some political party spreading these rumours and have referred the matter to the Cyber Police Cell for investigation," said Deshmukh.

The MMR continued to cause grave concerns with 1,226 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting to 41,886.

Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, the fatalities in the Pune Division touched 336, besides 7,320 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 106 deaths and 1,684 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 54 fatalities and 1,541 cases, and Akola Division with 34 deaths and 802 cases.

Latur Division has reported 8 deaths and 256 cases, Kolhapur Division 7 deaths and 617 patients, while the Nagpur Division has reported 9 deaths and 600 cases so far.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased from 530,247 to 567,622 on Tuesday -- a high jump of 37,375 -- and those in institutional quarantine came down from 35,479 to 35,200, a decline of 279 suspected cases.

The state's containment zones increased from 2,391 on Monday to 2,562 on Tuesday, while 16,780 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 66 lakh across the state.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)