Maharashtra breaches its earlier single-highest one-day COVID-19 tally with 2940 new cases

Maharashtra again breached its earlier single-highest one-day COVID-19 tally after 2,940 persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, May 22. While there are 44,582 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the state, the number of active cases stands at 30,474. 857 COVID-19 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recovered to 12,583. 63 deaths - 27 from Mumbai, 9 from Pune, 8 from Jalgaon, 5 from Solapur, 3 each from Aurangabad and Vasai-Virar, two from Satara, and one each from Thane, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan-Dombivali, Panvel, and Nagpur were reported in the state on Friday. 46 of the deceased had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc. So far, 1,517 deaths have been recorded in Maharashtra. 

A total of 3,32,777 laboratory samples have been collected until now. There are 1,949 active containment zones in Maharashtra currently. Surveillance of 66.32 lakh population has been undertaken by 16,154 surveillance squads. While 4,69,279 persons are under home quarantine, 28,430 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres.

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Intra-state train tickets within Maharashtra cancelled

On Thursday, the Ministry of Railways announced the cancellation of the tickets of passengers whose originating as well as terminating stations fall within Maharashtra. This decision was taken by the Railway Board after the Maharashtra government brought to its notice that inter-district travel was prohibited in the state as per the lockdown guidelines. Moreover, a full refund without the deduction of cancellation charges would be provided. The affected passengers shall be informed about this via an SMS saying- 'Due to restrictions imposed by Maharashtra Government for travel within the state of Maharashtra by train, your ticket has been cancelled and a full refund shall be given'. The Railway Board added that intra-state booking within Maharashtra should not be permitted until further orders.  

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Fadnavis stages protest at BJP office

Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Devendra Fadnavis participated in the 'Maharashtra Bachao Andolan' (Save Maharashtra Movement) at the state BJP office in Mumbai. He, along with other BJP leaders such as Vinod Tawde raised placards demanding an economic package of Rs.50,000 crore from the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Interacting with the media, Fadnavis alleged that the health machinery had collapsed and the state government had shown gross negligence. 

Read: Fadnavis Demands MVA Govt To Increase COVID-19 Testing In Mumbai, Cites 'positivity Rate'