'COVID situation in Maharashtra concerning, will speak to CM Thackeray': Health Minister

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday expressed concern over the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra. As of now 34 out of 36 districts in the state are affected by the Coronavirus. The Health Minister also asserted that he will hold a meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray soon to discuss further course of action to control the spread of the virus in the state.

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Rise of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra

The rise of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra persisted on Tuesday after 841 more persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Moreover, 143 additional cases have been added to the tally because of the data cleaning process as mandated by the Central government. This has propelled the state's COVID-19 tally to 15,525. Maharashtra recorded the highest discharge number in a single day with 354 individuals recovering from the novel coronavirus. So far, 2817 persons have been discharged.

Meanwhile, 34 new COVID-19 deaths- 26 from Mumbai, 6 from Pune, one from Aurangabad, and Kolhapur were reported on Tuesday taking the state's death toll to 617. At least 28 of the deceased patients had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc. A total of 1,82,884 laboratory samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus. Currently, there are 943 containment zones in the state. While 1,99,182 persons are in-home quarantine, 12,456 others have been sent to institutional quarantine centres to contain the spread of COVID-19.

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