Maharashtra records highest 1-day spike of 515 COVID-19 deaths, toll surpass 30,000

Posting an alarming milestone, the death toll due to Coronavirus in Maharashtra crossed 30,000 on Tuesday after the state reported a record jump of 515 new fatalities. The state health department said out of the 515 deaths reported, 302 are from the last 48 hours and 116 are from last week. Rest 97 deaths are from the period before last week.

Out of these 97 deaths, 24 occurred in Thane, 22 in Kolhapur, 13 in Ahmednagar, 11 in Nagpur, 5 in Aurangabad, 4 in Pune, 4 in Solapur, 3 in Nanded, 3 in Sangli, 2 in Nashik, 1 in Amaravati, 1 in Nandurbar, 1 in Palghar, 1 in Raigad, 1 in Ratnagiri and 1 death of a Karnataka resident.

The death toll now stands at 30,409 while the case fatality rate stands at 2.77%.

Earlier in the day, the Union Health Ministry raised concerns as it noted Maharashtra tops daily average deaths due to COVID-19 among the top five states and the rate is increasing. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan informed that daily average deaths in Maharashtra were 202 during the first week of July whereas now it is 409.

Meanwhile, new COVID-19 cases rose by 20,482 in Maharashtra, propelling the tally to 10,97,856 in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, 19,423 patients were discharged after recovery. So far, 7,75,273 patients have recovered, posting a recovery rate of 70.62%, as against the national average of 78.28%.

As of September 15, there are 2,91,797 active cases in Maharashtra, the highest of any other State in the country.

Currently, 17,34,164 people are under home quarantine and 37,225 people in institutional quarantine. Out of 54,09,060 laboratory samples, 10,97,856 have been tested positive (20.29%) for COVID-19 till date.

Amid the surge in infections, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has announced the 'My family-My Responsibility' campaign with an aim to motivate maximum number of people to adopt a new lifestyle for effective COVID control.

Thackeray said the crisis is likely to become more severe in the coming days as the state continues to be the worst-affected due to the viral disease with more than one million COVID-19 cases. He also urged people to follow all social distancing norms to control the virus spread.

READ | Maharashtra's Daily Average COVID Deaths Doubled From July To Sept: Union Health Ministry

READ | Coronavirus LIVE Updates

Situation in key districts

India's auto and educational hub, Pune, has reported the highest number of active Coronavirus cases of 80,152. So far, 4,888 people have died while 1,54,441 have recovered in the district. In total, the district has reported 2,39,481 cases.

Fears have risen over fresh infection spurt in Maharashtra's densely populated urban clusters like Mumbai and Thane, having reported 1,73,596 (+1586) and 1,60,683 (+3767) respectively. Among other urban districts, Palghar has 31,682 cases while Nagpur has 53,853.

READ | Mumbai Sees More Recoveries Than Cases In A Day; Active COVID-19 Cases Soar To 30,879

READ | Maha Govt Launches Public Campaign To Curb COVID-19 Spread