Coronavirus: Maharashtra records more than one lakh COVID-19 cases; Minister tests positive

Mumbai, June 13: With the number of COVID-19 cases on the rise, Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde on Friday tested positive for the novel coronavirus as the state breached the one lakh-mark. Maharashtra is the only state in India to breach the one lakh-mark so far.

With a total of 1,01,141 cases and 3,717 deaths, this state contributes to one-third of the total virus load in India. With 1,366 new cases.

Currently, Mumbai has a total of 55,451 cases. On Friday, the city's toll touched 2,044 as 90 more succumbed to the infection.

According to reports, though Maharashtra reported the fastest growth rate of COVID-19 cases in India, it has performed better than Spain, Italy and the UK.

However, health officials expressed worry over the state's death rate. At 3.6 per cent, the fatality rate in Maharashtra remains higher than the national average of 2.86 per cent. The state government data, till June 11, showed most of the virus-afflicted patients were in the age group of 31-40 years.

A data analysed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation until May 25 showed that 8.1 per cent of those aged above 60 years and 0.5 per cent of those aged less than 40 have died in Mumbai.

It can be seen that Maharashtra has over 3,000 containment zones. State Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the containment zone tag is removed if no case were reported from the area in 28 days.

While the guidelines that were laid down by the state mandate hospitalisation for only moderately to severely ill patients in order to ensure beds are available for critical patients, Munde was hospitalised as a precaution.