Maharashtra toll nears 20,000 but Mumbai’s active Covid-19 cases lower than 18,000 – Times of India

MUMBAI: For the second day in a row, Maharashtra has added over 12,000 Covid-19 cases (12,614, the third highest in a day so far) and over 300 deaths (322). The total cases now are 5,84,754 and the death count in the state is 19,749, close to the 20,000 mark. Deaths in Mumbai continued to drop with the BMC update reporting 48, taking the overall toll to 7,086.
With 1,254 new cases diagnosed in the city, second highest so far in August, the tally in Mumbai is now 1.28 lakh. While Mumbai continued to boast of a recovery rate of 79% (with 888 patients getting discharged on Saturday) and an overall growth rate of 0.84% between August 8 and 14, the case doubling rate has dropped from 86 days to 83 in a three-day period. The case fatality rate continued to be high at 5.5%. Active cases in Mumbai dipped further to 17,581, lowest in the last few weeks.

Dr Om Shrivastava, infectious diseases specialist who is a member of the state task force, said, “Unless we are able to enforce social distancing and ensure that gains of the lockdown are not squandered away, we should be prepared to re-learn a hard lesson.”
According to the BMC update, 26 of the 48 victims on Saturday had comorbidities and 30 were over 60 years of age. Meanwhile, the BMC update said, “Reconciliation exercise of Covid-19 patients until 31st July 2020 is completed with state & districts today. Hence all the duplicates & out of Mumbai (as per original patients addresses) entries of 2,088 patients have been removed & reflected in progressive (sic).”
Of 322 deaths in the state, 226 are from the last 48 hours, 43 from last week and 43 are from the period before that, officials said. Public health minister Rajesh Tope, who was in his hometown Jalna for the flag-hoisting ceremony, said cases were spreading in rural parts and that was a concern. He also said most of these cases can be traced to people who have travelled to cities like Mumbai and Pune.
Pune division added the highest number of cases, though MMR, excluding Mumbai, reported the highest number of deaths on Saturday. Pune division added 3,332 and 80 deaths, while MMR added 2,258 cases and 87 deaths The Kalyan-Dombivli belt on Saturday crossed 24,000 cases, reporting 288 fresh cases and 7 deaths, taking the tally to 24,109, with 489 deaths. In Thane city, 172 new cases were reported along with nine deaths and 336 discharges.