Maharashtra reports 7 new COVID-19 deaths, confirmed cases tally mounts to 868

Mumbai, Apr 06: Even as the national lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus entered the thirteenth day on Monday, as many as 120 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported from Maharashtra, mainly from Mumbai and Pune, taking the total number of the affected people to 868, a Health official said.

With seven more deaths reported from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Vasai, including that of a woman who is nine-month pregnant, the overall toll mounted to 52 in the state.

The worst-affected Mumbai reported 68 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally of affected people to 526 while the death toll from the financial capital went up to 34, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a release. Notably, most of the seven deceased had no history of any foreign travel though they were suffering from co-morbities like diabetes or hypertension, the official said.

"Out of the total seven deaths in Maharashtra, four are from Mumbai while one each is from Navi Mumbai, Thane and Vasai," he said. Giving the break-up of the 120 fresh COVID-19 cases, the official said that 68 of them are from Mumbai while 41 are from Pune," he said.

"The remaining cases included two each from Vasai- Virar area near Mumbai, and Satara and Ahmednagar, while three are from Aurangabad and one each from Jalna and Nashik," he added. The deceased woman (30), who had completed nine months of pregnancy, is probably the youngest fatality of COVID-19 in the state.

Out of the 52 deaths in the state so far, 34 are from Mumbai, 9 from Thane region, 5 from Pune and one each from Aurangabad, Buldana, Jalgaon and Amravati, the official said. Out of the total 868 cses in Maharashtra so far, the highest 526 are from Mumbai, 141 from Pune, Sangli (25), Thane region (85), Ahmednagar (23), Nagpur (17), Aurangabad (10), Latur (8), five each from Buldana and Satara, Yavatmal (4), Osmanabad (3). Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon and Nashik have reported two cases each while Sindhudurg, Gondia, Washim, Amravati, Hingoli and Jalna have reported one case each. He said of the 17,563 samples sent for testing so far, 15,808 have been negative while 868 returned positive.

A total of 70 people have been discharged so far in the state after recovering from the viral infection, the official added. While a total of 32,521 people are put under home quarantine across the state, 3498 others are put under the institutional quarantine.

Talking about the Nizamuddin link, the official said a total of eight people who had returned from the Delhi congregation held last month have tested positive for coronavirus so far. "Out of the eight, two each are from Pune, Pimpri- Chinchwad and Ahmednagar while one each hailed from Hingoli and Washim, he added. According to the official, a total of 175 surveillance teams are pressed into service in the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) area near Mumbai to identify clusters for containment. The number of such teams in Thane and Navi Mumbai is 214 and 178, respectively.

"The number of the surveillance teams in Ahmednagar district is 71 and 147 in Buldana," he added. A total of 2,855 survey teams have so far completed surveillance of ten lakh population, he added.

Meanwhile, amidst speculations over lifting of the lockdown after April 15, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope has said that no one should be under the impression of its complete withdrawal.. "No one should be under the impression of complete lifting of lockdown from April 15 onwards. The situation between April 10 to 15 will be closely analysed before taking a decision on the lockdown," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, two private hospitals in Mumbai were sealed after some of their medical staff, including doctors and nurses, tested positive for the novel coronavirus, civic officials said on Monday. Three doctors and 26 nurses tested positive for novel coronavirus in Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai Central and the facility has been sealed off to prevent the spread of infection, BMC health officials said.