Maharashtra Crosses 90,000-Mark, Mumbai Has 51,100 Coronavirus Cases – NDTV

Mumbai:

Maharashtra, the country’s biggest coronavirus hotspot, today logged more than 90,000 cases, with state capital Mumbai alone at 51,000 cases. The total of 90,787 however includes the 42,638 people who have already recovered from the highly infectious disease.

According to figures supplied by the Maharashtra government, 2,259 people tested positive over the last 24 hours, a quarter of the record 9,987 cases reported across the country.

The number of deaths went up by 120 in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 3,289, which is also the highest among states.

Financial capital Mumbai now has 51,100 cases, 1,760 patients are dead. The silver lining, the experts said, was that the cases were plateauing in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum.

The spike in numbers comes days after Maharashtra took another cautious step towards easing the lockdown, allowing all government offices to function with 15 per cent employees last week. Private offices started functioning from yesterday with 10 per cent staff strength.

Self-employed people like plumbers, electricians, pest-control and technicians have also been allowed to start work, with all the mandatory social distancing and safety norms.

But in view of the ground reality, the state is yet to open religious places, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, which have started functioning in other parts of the country.

Last week, Maharashtra surpassed China’s tally of around 84,000 cases as the country crossed the 2.5 lakh mark. India now has more than 2.66 lakh cases — recording 9,000-plus cases for the seventh consecutive day.

India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK. The country surpassed Spain a few days back.