After highs, Maha Covid cases cool down, toll crosses 18K

After highs in the past couple of days, Maharashtra Covid-19 cases cooled down though the state death toll crossed the 18,000 mark, health officials said here.

The state notched 293 Covid deaths on Monday - down from the highest 390 fatalities on Sunday, and recorded 9,181 new cases, dropping below the peak of 12,822 (August 8).

The state death toll shot up from 17,757 a day earlier to 18,050, while the total number of cases went up from 515,332 to 524,513 now - both highest in the country.

According to Monday's figures, there was one death roughly every five minutes and a staggering 383 new cases every hour added to the state tally.

The state recovery moved up from 68.25 per cent to 68.33 per cent on Monday, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 3.44 per cent.

A total 6,711 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 358,421 - considerably higher than the 147,735 'active cases' currently in the state.

Of the total 293 fatalities, Mumbai accounted for 46 deaths, followed by 43 in Pune and 42 in Thane.

Dipping below the 50-range, with 46 fatalities Mumbai's toll increased from 6,799 to 6,845 and the number of corona cases increased by 925 - to touch 124,307 now.

Besides, there were 22 deaths in Raigad, 21 in Nagpur, 16 in Sangli, 12 in Kolhapur, nine in Jalna, eight in Ratnagiri, seven each in Ahmednagar, Solapur, Aurangabad and Nanded, six each in Palghar and Latur, five each in Jalgaon and Beed, four each in Nashik, Satara and Amravati, three each in Nandurbar and Osmanabad, one each in Dhule, Hingoli, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana and Chandrapur.

The MMR (Thane Division, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remained on the edge as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the toll shooting up by 115 to touch 10,856 deaths and fresh 2,523 new cases pushed up the total 269,391 now.

Pune district total cases have touched 114,703, with the death toll increasing from 2,728 a day earlier to 2,771, while Thane district had 105,904 cases with 3,049 fatalities, on Monday.

With 54 more fatalities, the Pune Division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll touched 3,534 and the case tally zoomed up with 2,207 new cases to reach 132,602.

Nashik Division has recorded 1,467 fatalities and 50,559 cases, followed by Aurangabad Division notching 704 deaths and 21,162 cases, and Kolhapur Division recording 465 fatalities and 17,069 cases.

Next is Latur Division with 367 fatalities and 11,346 cases, Akola Division 332 fatalities and 10,361 cases, and Nagpur Division with 270 deaths and 11,485 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona increased from 10,00,588 to 10,01,268 now, while those in institutional quarantine increased from 34,957 to 35,521 on Monday.