Maharashtra records 46,781 new Covid-19 cases; Mumbai’s daily tally goes over 2,000 again – Hindustan Times

Maharashtra’s daily tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continued to rise on Wednesday with 46,781 new cases and 816 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload and death toll to 5,226,710 and 78,007 respectively, according to the state health department’s bulletin. As many as 58,805 recoveries were recorded on Wednesday taking the total recoveries past 4.6 million. The recovery rate is currently at 88.01 per cent.

Wednesday’s case count in Maharashtra is 5,825 more than that of Tuesday’s when 40,956 cases were seen. On Monday, 37,236 new cases were recorded in the state, the lowest since March 30 this year.

The capital city Mumbai also witnessed a sharp spike in its daily Covid-19 caseload on Wednesday with 2,104 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload to 681,233. The city’s death toll has climbed to 13,972 as 66 more people succumbed to the disease on Wednesday. From the past 2 days, Mumbai was seeing just a little over 1,700 new infections.

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State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the cabinet has recommended extending lockdown-like restrictions in Maharashtra for two weeks, adding that chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will take a decision in this regard soon.

As Maharashtra is preparing for another wave of the pandemic, the Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government about the measures it is taking to monitor the spread of the Covid-19 disease among children, according to news agency PTI. The bench, comprising chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice G S Kulkarni, has asked the state to file its reply by May 19.

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Quoting experts who said that children might be the most vulnerable in the third wave, the Bombay HC bench said authorities must take pre-emptive steps and also strengthen Maharashtra’s health infrastructure, PTI reported.

More than 18.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Maharashtra so far.

As the state struggles to inoculate eligible beneficiaries amid an acute shortage of doses, health minister Tope said on Wednesday that vaccination of beneficiaries between 18-44 years has been suspended and all doses meant for this age group will now be diverted to for those above 45 years.