Maharashtra sees 7,761 single-day Covid-19 infections, Mumbai records 443 new cases – Hindustan Times

Maharashtra continued to report over 7,000 daily new infections of the coronavirus as 7,761 people tested positive on Friday, data from the government showed. The total confirmed cases reached 6,197,018. The death toll in the state climbed to 126,727 after 167 more people succumbed to their illness in the previous 24 hours.

The capital city of Mumbai witnessed 443 new cases in the day and its tally reached 730,234. The city’s death toll rose to 15,678 with 11 new fatalities in the day, the data also showed.

The daily new cases in Maharashtra have remained above 7,000 on Monday and Tuesday when the state reported 7,603 new cases and 7,243 new cases respectively. On Wednesday (8,602 cases) and Thursday (8,010 cases), the state reported over 8,000 new cases each day. The death toll, however, has remained above 170 on all days in the week except Monday, when it was 53.

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As many as 13,452 patients were discharged from the hospital on Friday as the cumulative recoveries climbed to 5,965,644 so far. Meanwhile, medical workers in the state tested 215,406 new samples for Covid-19 and so far 45,039,617 samples have been tested for the disease.

Earlier in the day, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the measures taken by the state government to tackle the second wave of the pandemic and also about the “planning in works to mitigate the impending third wave,” the chief minister’s office (CMO) said. Modi met over a video conferencing call with the CMs of six states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra and Kerala — to discuss the prevailing Covid-19 situation in these states. During the meeting, the PM expressed concerns about the increasing number of infections in Maharashtra and Kerala.

Thackeray also reiterated his demand for 30 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine per month to the state in the meeting with Modi. “If the state gets three crore doses per month, vaccination in all the districts can be completed,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying.

On the vaccination front, 38,268,323 doses have been administered in the state as of 7am on Friday, data from the Union ministry of health and family welfare showed. This included 29,723,378 first doses and 8,544,945 second doses.