By Quaid Najmi
Mumbai, May 30 (IANS): Maharashtra on Saturday notched 99 new Covid-19 deaths, down by 17 from the highest 116 fatalities of May 29, to touch 2,197 deaths, while the number of patients crossed 65K, health officials said.
Today's toll includes 81 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone, the worst-hit in the country, besides 2,940 new positive cases recorded in the state today.
This comes to roughly one death every 15 minutes, and an average 123 new cases notched every hour, in the state.
Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and new patients over 2K daily for the past five consecutive days, with the last highest figure of 3,041 infections recorded on May 24.
With 99 fatalities, the state death toll has touched 2,197 while the total number of coronavirus patients increased from yesterday's 62,228 to 65,168 today.
The health department said of the total number of cases declared to date, 34,881 were 'active cases' today -- increasing by 1,757 over yesterday's 33,124.
The state has notched a recovery rate of 43.07 per cent and a mortality (death) rate of 3.37 per cent, with the patient doubling time improving to 17.5 days over last week's 11.3 days.
Of the total 99 fatalities today, 54 were recorded in Mumbai alone, besides one each from Bihar and Rajasthan, taking the city deaths up from yesterday's 1,173 to 1,227 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,510 cases to touch 38,442 now.
Besides Mumbai's 54 deaths, there were 10 fatalities each in Thane and Raigad districts, 7 in Palghar, 6 each in Pune and Solapur, 3 in Jalgaon and one in Nagpur.
The victims comprised 62 men and 37 women, and nearly 67 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.
On the positive side, 1,084 fully cured patients returned home today, taking the number of those discharged from 26,997 to 28,081 now.
The state government has decided to ban spitting, smoking, chewing tobacco and paan in public places with hefty fines ranging from Rs 1,000 and 1 day's public service to 2 years jail term, said Health Minister Rajesh Tope.
A 250-bed special Covid-19 Hospital will come up in Aurangabad, one of the Red Zones by June 10, for the benefit of the local infectees.
The MMRA continued to cause grave concerns with 1,478 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting to 49,575.
Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 404, besides 8,899 patients.
The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 157 deaths and 2,000 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 66 fatalities and 1,787 cases, and finally Akola Division with 47 deaths and 980 cases.
Latur Division reported 9 deaths and 338 cases, Kolhapur Division 10 deaths and 816 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 11 deaths and 714 cases.
Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from yesterday's 535,467 to 551,660 today, and those in institutional quarantine decreased by 547 to 35,420.
The state's containment zones increased from 2,941 to 3,169 on Saturday and 17,917 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 68.5 lakh in the state.