Corona deaths in state cross 100-mark on Wednesday; highest one-day surge so far

Mumbai: There were 105 Covid-19 deaths in Maharashtra on Wednesday, the highest number of single-day deaths until now. On Tuesday, 97 corona deaths were recorded. Meanwhile, 2,197 new corona cases were reported across the state in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 56,948 cases, with 1,897 deaths until now.

Thirty-two of the 105 deaths were recorded in Mumbai, followed by 16 in Thane, 10 in Jalgaon, nine in Pune, seven each in Navi Mumbai, Raigad, six in Akola, four in Aurangabad, three each in Nashik, Solapur, two in Satara and one each in Ahmed Nagar, Nagpur, Nandurbar, Panvel, and Vasai-Virar. One of the dead in Mumbai included a resident of Gujarat.

“Thirty-nine of the deaths reported on Wednesday occurred in the last two days, while 66 deaths occurred between April 23 and May 24, which was verified and updated in Wednesday’s data,” said Dr Pradip Awate, state surveillance officer.

According to the public health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the city reported 1,044 corona cases and 32 deaths on Wednesday, taking the total count to 34,018, with 1,097 deaths so far.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has initiated a nationwide survey to establish community-based district level sero-surveillance and to monitor the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population of Mumbai.

As per the ICMR guidelines, the survey will be conducted in adults aged 18 years or more and 500 individuals will be included from the five clusters identified in Mumbai which consists- Kandivli (East), Kandivli (West), Deonar, Dharavi and Kurla-Saki Naka. It will be conducted with the help of the local medical officers of health teams, along with the ICMR-National Institute of Immuno-Haematology teams supported by WHO teams.

“Teams will visit randomly selected households and after obtaining consent, detail the history of the person and the contacts, if any, will be recorded. The survey team will collect blood from each participant. Detection of SARS CoV- 2 specific IgG antibodies will be performed. The development of antibodies is a sign of exposure to COVID-19 infection,” said Dr Daksha Shah, deputy executive health officer.

Key Observations

1. The doubling rate of cases in the state was 11.5 days last week, which improved to 14.7 days on Wednesday.

2. Of the total laboratory tests done in the country (32,42,160), about 12.4% tests were done in Maharashtra - 3, 142 tests per million population in the state against the national figure of 2,363 tests per million population.

3. The recovery rate in the state is 31.5%.

4. Currently, 5,82,701 people are in home quarantine and 37,761 people are in institutional quarantine.