Maha tally of COVID-19 cases up by 232 to 2916; death toll 187
Mumbai, Apr 15 () Lockdown and various restrictionsnotwithstanding, the coronavirus positive cases in Maharashtracontinued to spike with 232 more detections on Wednesday,while the death toll went up by nine to 187, a Health officialsaid.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the state now standsat 2916, with Mumbai alone accounting for 1896 cases and 114deaths.
Out of the nine new deaths, Pune (6) reported thehighest number of fatalities, followed by Mumbai (2) while onedeath was reported from Akola district in Vidarbha region, hesaid.
Meanwhile, Union Health Ministry has reiterated thatthere has been no community transmission of the disease in thecountry so far.
The state Health official said: "232 people testedpositive for coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the total numberof the cases to 2916. With nine more people succumbing to theinfection, the death toll now stands at 187".
With 36 more recoveries, the number of the people whocured from the COVID-19 disease in the state now stands at295, he said.
Among various regions, Thane division has so farreported 2,228 COVID-19 cases and 129 deaths which includesthe toll from Mumabi (114).
Pune division has reported 415 cases and 44 deaths,followed by Nashik division in northern Maharashtra with 83coronavirus positive cases and five deaths.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Kolhapur division inwestern Maharashtra stands at 39 and one death, followed byAurangabad division in Marathwada region which reported 25cases and two fatalities.
Latur division reported 13 COVID-19 cases while Akoladivision in Vidarbha region 46, the official said.
The number of cases from the Nagpur division in eastMaharashtra stood at 56 with one death, he added.
A total of 11 people from neighbouring states wereundergoing treatment in Maharashtra for COVID-19 and two ofthem have died, he said.
"Out of 52,000 laboratory samples tested forcoronavirus infection, 48,198 were negative while 2916 othershave tested positive," he said.
The official said a total of 5394 squads have carriedout surveillance of moe than 20 lakh people so far.
The number of people put under home quarantine is69,738 while 5617 are under institutional quarantine, he said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerayon Wednesday said that ensuring recovery of COVID-19 patientsand preventing fatalities were the challenges being faced byhis government as well as the medical fraternity.
In his interaction with CEOs of privatehospital inMumbai, along with members of the newly-set up task force ofmedical professionals through video conferencing, Thackerayunderlined the need to put in place a robust patientmanagement system.
The deliberations focused on issues like the patientcare; need for medical equipment; availability of ICU beds,and ensuring protection of medical personnel treatingcoronavirus positive patients.
The CM further said that the focus should be onprevention of deaths of COVID-19 patients and saving thosepatients who are in a serious condition.
Underlining the concerns of the state government, asenior officer had said that though Maharashtra stands at thefourth position in the country vis-a-vis the COVID-19mortality rate at 7.34 per cent, the state is way ahead bothin terms of the number of positive cases and fatalities. ND MR GK NPiNSK NSK