Covid-19: Maharashtra sees highest single-day spike, Mumbai breaks record too

With this, Maharashtra’s infection tally has risen to 2,396,340, according to the health department. Mumbai, meanwhile, registered 2,877 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday.

Maharashtra on Thursday recorded 25,833 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to the health department. This took Maharashtra’s infection tally to 2,396,340, the highest across India, while the death toll rose to 53,138 with 58 more fatalities on the day.

On Wednesday, 23,179 fresh infections were detected in the western state.

The state’s active caseload of the viral disease rose to 166,353 while 12,764 more hospital discharges took total recovered cases to 2,175,565, the health department data showed.

Thursday’s rise in Maharashtra’s daily new Covid-19 cases is its highest in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. On September 11 last year, 24,886 cases were detected in the state. As of Wednesday night, Maharashtra had recorded more than 20,000 daily cases 16 times since March 2020, while the 23,000 threshold was breached six times, government data showed.

Meanwhile, its capital city of Mumbai, too, witnessed its highest-ever rise as 2,877 new coronavirus cases were detected in the city, along with eight deaths, taking the infection tally and death toll to 352,851 and 11,559 respectively. Earlier, the metropolis’ highest single-day spike was recorded on October 7 last year, when 2,848 were recorded. In fact, for the first few days that month, the city saw more than 2,000 infections per day.

Pune and Nagpur logged 4,965 and 3,976 new cases respectively, their infection tally rising to 453,532 and 182,552. The two districts also recorded 31 and 23 new deaths; Pune's death toll has reached 9,486, while Nagpur's is at 4,528.

Even as Maharashtra is witnessing a fresh wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the government has ruled out a state-wide lockdown for now, though chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and other ministers and officials have repeatedly warned of a shutdown if people fail to wear masks and not follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. However, officials at district level have announced night curfews/restrictions/lockdown for their respective districts in a bid to curb the spread of the disease.