Maha coronavirus cases cross 1000 mark;tally of deceased at 64

(Eds: Updating)

Mumbai, Apr 7 () On the fourteenth day of thenational lockdown on Tuesday Maharashtra reported a sharpspike by 150 in coronavirus positive cases, with Mumbai aloneaccounting for 116, taking the overall tally of the affectedpeople in the state to 1018, Health officials said.

Maharashtra thus became the first state in the countryto report more than 1,000 coronavirus cases, he said.

Simultaneously, the death toll due to COVID-19 rose by12 to 64 across the state.

In Mumbai, the death toll climbed to 40, theBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stated in a release.

The tally of COVID-19 patients in the country'sfinancial capital now stands at 642.

Apart from Mumbai's 116 cases, new cases were reportedfrom Pune (18), three each from Ahmednagar, Nagpur andAurangabad, two each from Thane and Buldana, and one each fromSatara, Ratnagiri and Sangli, said the Health departmentofficial.

Of the 12 fresh deaths in the state, six are fromMumbai, three from Pune and one each from Satara, Nagpur andMira Bhayandar area near Mumbai, he said.

"The state reported deaths of 12 people, out of whichonly one person has a known travel history to the USA. Rest ofthe victims have no travel history but they are above 50 yearold and have some existing illness such as diabetes orhypertension," he said.

The worst-affected Mumbai reported 116 fresh COVID-19cases, taking the tally of the affected people to 642 whilethe death toll from the financial capital went up to 40, theBMC stated.

Out of the 64 deaths in the state so far, 40 are fromMumbai, 8 from Pune, 3 from Thane, 2 each from Navi Mumbai andVasai-Virar, 1 each from Mira Bhayandar, Palghar, Satara,Nagpur, Buldana, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Jalgaon and Amravati,said the official.

Out of the total 1018 cases in Maharashtra so far, thehighest 642 are from Mumbai, followed by 130 from Pune, PimpriChinchwad (17), Pune Rural (4), Thane (21), Kalyan Dombivli(25), Navi Mumbai (28), Mira Bhayandar (3), Vasai Virar (10),Panvel (6), Satara (6), Sangli (26), Nagpur (19), Ahmednagar(18), Aurangabad (12), Latur (8), Osmanabad (4) and Kolhapur(2).

Three cases each are reported from Thane rural,Palghar, Ratnagiri and Yavatmal, 7 each from Buldana andAhmednagar rural and one each from Ulhasnagar, Nashik city,Nashik rural, Jalgaon city, Jalgaon rural, Aurangabad rural,Jalna, Hingoli, Washim, Amravati city and Gondia, the officialsaid.

He said of the 20,877 samples sent for testing so far,19,290 have returned negative while 1,018 repoted positive.

A total of 79 people have been discharged so far inthe state after recovering from the viral infection, theofficial added.

While a total of 34,695 people are put under homequarantine across the state and 4,008 others are put under theinstitutional quarantine.

Talking about the Nizamuddin link, the official said atotal of 23 people, who had returned from the Delhicongregation held last month, have tested positive forcoronavirus so far.

"Out of them, 8 are from Latur, 6 from Buldana and 2each from Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Ahmednagar while one eachis from Hingoli, Jalgaon and Washim," the official said.

According to the official, a total of 214 surveillanceteams are pressed into service in Satara city to identifyclusters for containment. The number of such teams in Hingoliis 14, 31 in Sangli, 39 in Ratnagiri and 48 in Jalgaon.

A total of 3,492 survey teams have so far completedsurveillance of 12 lakh population, he added. ND KK GK KRKNSK NSK