Maharashtra adds 1,328 more deaths after Covid-19 review, death toll past 5500

Maharashtra govt attributed the additions to the death toll to a revision of cases in the state.

Maharashtra added 1,409 deaths including 81 casualties reported in the last 24 hours to take the toll past the five thousand mark to reach 5,537. 1,328 additional fatalities apart from the daily death count was added to the state’s tally after a reconciliation of figures done in a review of cases amid BJP’s allegations of fudging of data by the BMC.

Mumbai accounted for more than 50% of new Covid cases reported in Maharashtra on Tuesday.(PTI Photo)

The state also added 2,701 new Covid-19 cases taking the Covid 19 tally to 1,13,445. Mumbai reported the lion’s share of these with 935 fresh cases.

“The state reported deaths of 81 people today (Tuesday) by Covid-19 and added 1,328 (fatalities) which were not reported previously. The total number of the deceased stands at 5,537,” state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said on Tuesday.

Mehta threw further light on the reason for the bulk addition of 1,328 deaths to the state’s tally and said figures had been revised after a fresh review of cases in the state.

862 of these Coved-19 deaths had taken place in BMC areas and the remaining 466 in the rest of Maharashtra, he said.

The figures were revised following the state government’s instruction to medical authorities to complete the reconciliation of Covid-19 deaths by June 15.

The development came a day after the leader of opposition (LoP) in the assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, wrote to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging fudging of figures of deaths by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), reported a news agency.

Fadnavis had accused the BMC of an alleged cover up to hide around 950 deaths in a gross violation of ICMR guidelines.

In other important numbers, a total of 57,851 patients have been cured and discharged in the state leaving 50,044 active cases. A total of 6,84,268 samples have been tested for the disease.

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To put into perspective, India saw an increase of 10,667 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours with the total crossing 3.43 lakh on Tuesday, including 380 deaths reported in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 9,900. The country’s recovery rate has improved to 52.47 per cent.

It was also a day of hectic politics in the state with the BJP taking potshots at the ruling coalition for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic amidst simmering tension between the allies.

Ram Kadam on Tuesday said that the state government has been indifferent to Covid-19 situation and patients were dying due to insufficient preparation.

He added that the coalition was “busy talking about a squeaking old bed” and was not bothered about the deaths due to “lack of beds” during the pandemic.

Kadam was referring to an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna targeting ally Congress and likening the grand old party with an “old cot” that made “noise”.

Shiv Sena editorial was widely seen as a response to murmurs in Congress that it doesn’t have much say in governance of the state.