Maha records 25 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hrs; 9 in Mumbai

With 229 people testing positive on Thursday, the number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra reached 1,364, a health official said.

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The state also reported deaths of 25 COVID-19 patients, taking the death toll so far to 97, he added.

The bulk of new cases were reported in Mumbai.

"Both the number of new patients and that of deaths are highest for a single day so far," the official said.

As per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 79 persons tested positive for COVID-19 during the day, taking the number of such cases in the country's financial capital to 775.

So far 125 persons have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals in the state, the state health department official said.

Earlier in the evening, health minister Rajesh Tope had described the situation in the state as 'worrisome'.

Out of 25 deaths (15 men and 10 women) reported in the state on Thursday, Pune reported 14 deaths followed by nine in Mumbai and one each from Ratnagiri and Malegaon, the state health official said.

However, as per the authorities in Pune, only six coronavirus patients died in the district since Wednesday night.

A 101-year-old woman in Mumbai, who had tested positive for coronavirus, died on Thursday, becoming the oldest coronavirus casualty in the state.

"12 of 25 persons who died today were above 60, while eleven were in the 40 to 60 age bracket. Only two were less than 40 years old," the state health official said.

Most of them suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma or cardiac ailments.

So far 54 persons have died in Mumbai and 24 in Pune, the official said. However, as per the Mumbai civic body, the death toll in the state capital was 65.

Out of 1,364 COVID-19 patients 876 are from Mumbai and 181 from Pune, the state health official said.

The number of patients in other cities was as follows: Pimpri Chinchwad (19), Pune Rural (6), Thane city (26), Kalyan-Dombivli (32), Navi Mumbai (31), Mira Bhayandar (4), Vasai Virar (11), Panvel city (6), Satara (6), Sangli (26), Nagpur city (19), Ahmednagar city (16), three each from Thane rural and Palghar rural, Buldana (11), Ahmednagar rural (9), Aurangabad city (16), Latur city (8), Akola (9), Malegaon and Kolhapur (5) each, 4 each from Ratnagiri, Yavatmal, Osmanabad, Amravati city, one each from Ulhasnagar city, Nashik city, Nashik rural, Jalgaon city, Jalgaon rural, Aurangabad rural, Jalna, Hingoli, Washim, Gondia, Beed and Sindhudurg.

Eight people from neighbouring states are also undergoing treatment in Mumbai, the official said. 

Besides Mumbai and Pune, Thane city has recorded three deaths, two each have died in Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai and Vasai-Virar, one each in Palghar, Satara, Nagpur, Buldana, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Amravati city, Ratnagiri and Jalgaon, he said.

So far, 30,766 samples have been sent for testing of which 28,865 tested negative while 1,364 tested positive.

As many as 36,533 people have been home quarantined while 4,731 are under institutional quarantine, he said.

Mumbai is one of the hotspots of COVID-19 as large number of people tested positive on the city and the civic body has created 381 containment zones to contain the spread of the virus.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said the number of COVID-19 positive cases have dropped after witnessing a rise for two days.

"It is due to the door-to-door screening of people from areas, where COVID-19 patients were found, that the number of positive cases has gone down at Koliwada and other areas of the city," she said.

A senior BMC official said the city will soon get 13,000 new personal protective equipment (PPE) suits, which will be brought in a flight.

The BMC sources said that a nurse at Sion Hospital and a doctor tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

Four new positive cases, including a 70-year-old patient who died at KEM Hospital, tested coronavirus positive from Dharavi, taking the tally of such patients from the slum to 17, a BMC official said.

Meanwhile, the civic body has decided to keep all the shops, excluding medical shops, shut in the 10 containment zones spread over Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim.

The BMC claimed that it has surveyed more than 15 lakh people through health teams so far and identified 2,806 high risk contacts, which are referred for testing and also 1,500 samples collected through five teams by home visits.

"Because of vigorous action in a containment zone and timely quarantine of contacts, reduction in cases in these areas is seen," the BMC said.

It said that clinics have been set up on the periphery of the containment zones, where doctors, nurses and lab technicians, are deployed.

"40 Such clinics have been set up till April 8 and 442 swabs have been collected from the suspected cases," the civic body said.

Overall in Maharashtra, 125 persons have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals so far, the official said.

Earlier in the evening, health minister Rajesh Tope described the situation in the state as 'worrisome'.