Maharashtra records 322 COVID-19 deaths, highest in 6 months

Health workers wearing protective gear sort belongings and bags of patients inside the premises of a Covid-19 coronavirus quarantine centre following restrictions imposed by the state government amidst rising coronavirus cases in Mumbai. Pic/PTI

Breaking its daily COVID-19 cases record once again the state reported 59,907 new infections on Wednesday, with the active cases crossing the 5-lakh mark. The total tally of Maharashtra now stands at 31.73 lakh cases. The state also recorded 322 COVID-related deaths, highest in the last six months, taking the toll to 56,652.

On Wednesday the city reported 10,442 new cases, while the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) saw 19,952 infections. The Thane Municipal Corporation area, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivli Corporation area recorded 1,677, 1,582 and 1,818 cases respectively, in the MMR. Mumbai also recorded 24 deaths over the past 24 hours.

The state's recovery rate, which has dropped, now stands at 82.36 per cent with 30,296 patients discharged across the state.

Meanwhile, a total of 2.11 crore laboratory samples have been collected till date since March last year and out of them 31.73 lakh have tested positive with a 15 per cent positivity rate.

Mumbai's recovery rate too has dropped and stands at 80 per cent while the doubling rate has dropped owing to increase in cases and now stands at 35 days. Whereas, the city's overall growth rate increased rapidly over the past week, and it currently stands at 1.91 per cent.

The total number of positive cases recorded so far is 4.83 lakh and the number of tests carried out is 44.05 lakh. The city has a total of 81,886 active cases.
The state's mortality rate is steady at around 1.79 per cent despite the increase in number of deaths. Till date there have been 56,652 COVID-related deaths across the state. The number of deaths due to other causes in the state is 1,423.

According to the state government's data, there were 322 COVID-related deaths in the state, and the highest number of fatalities was recorded in Nagpur (31).

The MMR recorded a total of 71 deaths, including the ones in Mumbai. There was, however, some disparity between the state and civic administration's data. According to the BMC, the city recorded 23 deaths. Civic officials said 16 patients were suffering from other ailments and 17 were senior citizens.