Thane crosses 20,000 mark, but district's recovery rate is 85%

Mumbai: Thane on Wednesday crossed the 20,000 mark in Covid-19 cases but the district performed well on recovery, with over 85% patients under at least five civic bodies going home.

Thane case tally went up to 20,258, with 270 new patients, a day the recovery rate was 84%. Thane took 14 days to add 5,000 patients and breach the 15,000 mark on July 17, but it took 20 days to reach 20,000 cases.

State housing minister Jitendra Awhad choose Wednesday, his birthday, to donate plasma at a Thane blood bank along with former MP Anand Paranjpe.

Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi , Ambernath and Badlapur too recorded recovery rates of over 85%. Ambernath had the best recovery rate of 87% in Mumbai metropolitan region. Last month it was 81%.

In Ulhasnagar , where 781 patients are under treatment, the recovery rate was 86%, while Bhiwandi and Badlapur recorded 85%. All these civic bodies had seen a spike in cases in June-July but recorded fewer cases this week.

Kalyan-Dombivli, where the recovery rate was 75%, stays the second hotspot in MMR after Mumbai. It added 337 cases on Wednesday, taking the tally to 21,398. Its active cases were 4,987 while Thane’s were 2,885. The civic body has begun community testing. “Our first target was shopkeepers. In Dombivli, 32% shopkeepers tested positive,” said Shiv Sena corporator Dipesh Mahatre.

In Thane too the focus shifted to the business community. “Traders and builders have been told to test staff,” said civic chief Dr Vipin Sharma. Of 2,513 construction workers tested over the last four days, 171 were positive.

In Vasai-Virar , cases saw a drastic drop to 74, taking the tally to 12,647. Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, along with the civic body, will test maximum persons under ‘Mission Super 30’, launched in the region on Wednesday.

Navi Mumbai, with 278 new cases, reached 16,957. In Mira-Bhayander, new patients remained more (76) than contacts of positive patients (56). Maximum cases were from Mira Road, taking the total to 8,956, including 291 deaths.Manoj Badgeri and Pradeep Gupta