Maharashtra Records 97 COVID-19 Deaths in One Day; Cases in Mumbai Near 33,000

Maharashtra, on Tuesday, notched a record 97 deaths, up by 21 over the previous high of 76 fatalities recorded last Tuesday (May 19), the health officials revealed. Subsequently, the state-wide COVID-19 death toll has touched 1,792, and the total number of coronavirus cases has increased to 54,758. Of the total cases, 36,004 are currently active.

The latest death toll includes a whopping 72 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) alone, besides the 2,091 new cases that were reported across the state in the past 24 hours. This rise amounts to roughly one death every 15 minutes, and an average 87 new cases every hour.

As of Tuesday, Mumbai alone has recorded 1,065 coronavirus-related deaths, while the number of positive cases has shot up to 32,974.

The capital city's congested Dharavi slum continues to be a major hotspot, with 38 new cases from Tuesday taking the total number of infectees to 1,621. The death toll in the area remained static at 59.

Besides Mumbai, there were 33 fatalities in Thane, 8 in Pune, 7 in Solapur, 5 in Aurangabad, 3 in Nashik and one each in Ratnagiri and Nagpur.

Among the total deceased in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours, 63 were men and 34 women, and nearly 67 percent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problem and asthma.

On the positive side, 1,168 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged to 16,954.

Moreover, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased from 5,30,247 to 5,67,622 on Tuesday⁠—a high jump of 37,375⁠—and those in institutional quarantine came down from 35,479 to 35,200, a decline of 279 suspected cases.

The state's containment zones increased from 2,391 on Monday to 2,562 on Tuesday, while 16,780 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 66 lakh across the state thus far.

Meanwhile, the state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh dismissed rumours that the state planned to deploy Indian Army in the two worst hit cities⁠—Mumbai and Pune⁠—in view of the pandemic situation there.

"We have come to know of some political party spreading these rumours and have referred the matter to the Cyber Police Cell for investigation," said Deshmukh.