New Delhi: The Health Ministry during their briefing on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the sudden spurt of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that out of the top 10 COVID-19 infected districts, nine are from Maharashtra while one is in Karnataka
Nine of the top10 districts in India with the most number of active cases are in Maharashtra — Pune (43,590 cases), Nagpur (33,160), Mumbai (26,599), Thane (22,513), Nashik (15,710), Aurangabad (15,380), Nanded (10,106) Jalgaon (6,087) and Akola (5,704).
On the eve of the first anniversary of the countrywide lockdown following the spread of the infection, Maharashtra and Mumbai saw striking new highs of COVID-19 cases, health officials said on Wednesday. Maharashtra reported a fresh peak of 31,855 - up from the previous high of 30,535 registered on March 21 and the state's tally went up to 25,64,881 till date, just three days after crossing the 2.50 million mark.
The state witnessed 95 deaths, down from 132 the day before - the first time they rose to 3-digit figures since December 4, while death tally now at 53,684, with the worst-hit Mumbai, Pune and Nashik circles contributing maximum to the total.
In Mumbai, there are 30,760 active cases currently and with six more deaths, the total in the country's commercial capital has rose to 11,606 till date, which is also the highest in the country. The case doubling rate had gone down to 84 days, though the recovery rate stood at 90 per cent. The BMC has carried 37,54,500 COVID-19 tests till date. The city currently has 39 active containment zones comprising chawls, and 432 buildings with active cases have been sealed as per the rules.
On the other side, Pune city reported 3,509 new cases taking the count to 2,44,343 while city witnessed 24 deaths taking the death total to 5,114 in city.
Meanwhile, the state recovery rate decreased from 88.73 per cent to 88.21 per cent, while the death rate stood at 2.09 per cent, compared with 2.12 per cent a day earlier. Also, the number of active cases gone up from 230,641 to 247,299. On the positive front, the number of people sent to home isolation increased up to 12,68,094 while those pushed to institutional quarantine increased to 13,499.
