By Quaid NajmiMumbai, April 4 : Covid continued to choke Maharashtra with a staggering half-lakh plus cases and 222 deaths added on Sunday taking its tally shooting above 30 lakh, even as the state clamped a weekend lockdown, night curfews and daytime restrictions starting from Monday.
The state recorded its new peak of 57,074 new infections, up from 49,447 on Saturday, taking its tally to 30,10,597 now.
The 222 fresh fatalities took the toll to 55,878 now – the worst in the country.
Over 2.20 million people are in quarantine, either at home or in institutions, as the state frantically grapples to control the infection.
The state recovery rate continued to drop further, from 84.49 per cent on Saturday to 83.08 per cent, while the death rate worsened from 1.88 per cent a day earlier to 1.86 per cent, and the number of active cases jumped up from 401,172 to 430,503 now.
Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur circles remained major concern areas due to the galloping figures of new cases and deaths, followed by Aurangabad, Latur, Akola and Kolhapur circles, putting a severe strain on the health-medical infrastructure.
The country’s commercial capital, Mumbai, for the first time, recorded a five-figure tally – 11,206 new infections, up from 9,108 on April 3, taking up its total to 452,681, while 25 new deaths pushed up the total fatalities to 11,779.
The Mumbai circle – comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts – notched a staggering highest of 19,942 new daily cases, taking up the total to 955,313 now, with deaths shooting up to 20,623 now.
As cases continued to soar in the glamour capital, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed a whopping 700 buildings, besides 74 slums/chawls across the city, to curb the spread of the virus, while BMC Commissioner I.S.Chahal announced further augmentation of Covid beds in the city.
Of the day’s fatalities, Nanded and Nagpur led the state with 32 deaths each, while 27 died in Nashik, 25 in Mumbai, 15 in Thane, 11 in Beed, nine in Pune, eight each in Solapur and Latur, five in Raigad, four each in Ahmednagar, Osmanabad, Amravati, and Yavatmal, three each in Dhule, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Jalna, and Parbhani, two each in Nandurbar, Satara, Sangli, Sindhudurg, Hingoli, Akola, Washim, and Wardha, and one each in Kolhapur and Buldhana, besides one from outside the state.
Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation shot up to 22,05,899 now, while those shunted to institutional quarantine increased to 19,711
.
