In Maharashtra , 11 corona deaths, cases rise sharply by 328

Mumbai: Maharashtra recorded 11 deaths, and in a huge margin after four days, the number of Covid-19 positive cases shot up by 328, here on Saturday, health officials said.

With this, the total casualties in the state have increased to 211 and the number of positive cases stands at 3,648.

Among the casualties today, Mumbai notched 5, Pune 4, and one each in Thane and Aurangabad cities.

The 11 deceased include 5 women, including 3 in Mumbai and 6 men, and a majority of them suffered from various other serious diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart problems.

Of the 328 positive cases, 184 are in Mumbai, though the BMC earlier said it was 87, followed by 78 in Pune, 11 in Thane’s Mira-Bhayander town, 8 in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Palghar 7, 6 in Thane, 5 each in Kalyan-Dombivali and Raigad, 4 in Satara, 3 each in Bhiwandi, Thane and Nagpur, 2 each in Navi Mumbai and Solapur, and 1 each in Pune district, Vasai-Virar (Palghar district), Panvel (Raigad), Nandurbar, and cities of Akola, Amravati and Aurangabad.

The tribal district Nandurbar in North Maharashtra — which was in the ‘Green Zone’ till now — recorded its first coronavirus case, while Solapur district which remained untainted has recorded 2 cases today.

On the positive side, 34 fully cured patients returned home today, taking the number of those discharged to 365.

The number of people in home quarantine shot up from 74,587 yesterday to touch 82,299, and those in institutional quarantine increased from 6,376 to 6,999 today.

The state today added 14 new containment zones to touch 344 in the state, while 5,994 teams have surveyed a population of 2.30 million so far.

In a significant announcement, Labour & Excise Minister Dilip Valse-Patil said that all construction labourers would be paid Rs 2,000 as an allowance to help them tide over their financial crises during lockdown.

“This amount would be directly transferred to the bank accounts of around 1.20 million (12 lakhs) such daily-wage workers who are currently jobless as all construction activities are at a standstill,” Valse-Patil said.

As the Mumbai figures mounted again sharply today, Bharatiya Janata Party’s leader of Opposition asked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to direct the BMC to strictly adhere to ICMR guidelines for Covid-19 testing, failing which the city could face a huge risk of spread.

IANS