5,318 Covid 19 cases in Maharashtra mark the third highest single day rise in 3 days

Maharashtra is India’s worst affected state accounting for the largest chunk of total Covid cases in India.

For the third straight day, Maharashtra has posted the highest single day rise in Covid 19 cases with 5318 new infections posted on Saturday. The state had gone past the 5,000 infections a day mark on Friday with 5,024 cases. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state now stand at 1,59,133, according to a state health department statement.

167 deaths from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in Maharashtra on Saturday.(ANI Photo)

The state also recorded 167 deaths including 86 that occurred in the last 48 hrs and 81 from the previous period owing to an ongoing reconciliation exercise.

Maharashtra had crossed the 1.5 lakh mark on Friday—registering the highest single day rise of 5,024 cases and the first instance of more than 5,000 cases in a day. The previous highest single day spike was recorded on Thursday with 4,841 new Covid-19 cases.

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Number of recoveries in the state has climbed to 84,245 with 4,430 patients declared cured on Friday.

The state’s 896,874 tests are only a fraction shy of nine lakh tests conducted across the state.

Mumbai on Saturday registered 1,402 new cases, taking the tally of Covid-19 infections to 74,252 including 4,284 deaths including 41 casualties reported in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra is India’s worst affected state and is of the eight states including Delhi and Tamil Nadu, that account for 85.5 per cent of all active Covid-19 caseload in India along with 87 per cent of the total deaths caused by the disease in the country, according to the Union Health Ministry. Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are the other five worst affected states behind the three mentioned above.

Earlier today, a Congress MLA from Nanded district of Maharashtra tested positive for the disease, as per a district official cited by news agency ANI

He was found infected days after a senior minister from Nanded recovered from the infection.

“The legislator is undergoing treatment at a private hospital. He had come in contact with a local corporator, who had tested positive,” the official said.

The tally of Covid-19 patients in Nanded district has gone up to 248, while the death toll has reached 16, he added. Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur are some of the other badly hit cities in the state.

A 40-year-old BJP legislator from Thane district of Maharashtra had also tested positive for coronavirus infection a few days ago. He is undergoing treatment at a hospital in neighbouring Mumbai, the official said.

The health department personnel are in the process of tracing the high-risk contacts of the BJP leader and the Congress leader.

The cases in Maharashtra are on a rise while a political controversy over alleged under reporting of deaths in Mumbai is raging. On Friday, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope had rejected allegations leveled by BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and said the state government was not hiding Covid-19 deaths in the state and subsequently the Mumbai civic corporation, the BMC had instructed hospitals in the city to release all pending death reports by June 29.