Covid-19: Maharashtra adds 139 deaths even as cases cross 80,000; Mumbai toll up 54

MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Friday reported 139 Covid-19 fatalities, the highest in a day so far since the start of the outbreak. With this, the state's toll has reached 2,849. In the last three days, the state has reported a total of 384 deaths. Mumbai equalled its highest toll for a day with 54 deaths, its toll crossing the 1,500 mark to reach 1,519.
Maharashtra added 2,436 cases on Friday to cross the 80,000 mark; it now has 80,229 cases, the last 10,000 cases having been added in just four days.On June 1, Maharashtra had 70,013 cases.

According to the state government, of the 139 deaths reported on Friday, 27 occurred in the last two days, while the other 112 were from the period April 21 to June 2 and were added to the toll now.
Civic officials announced that the doubling rate of cases in Mumbai had improved to 20 days from 12 days on May 15. Mumbai also recorded 1,149 fresh cases, taking the total to 46,080, a BMC update said.
Of the 54 deaths, 41 were from the period April 21 to June 2. Of the victims, 47 had chronic diseases such as diabetes or hypertension; 25 were women, and 28 men. Most victims (32) were over 60 years old, while 19 were in the 40-60 age-group and two were under 40 years of age.
While Mumbai equalled the highest number of deaths for a day (54) on Friday, the BMC spoke of how the doubling date of cases had gone up to 20 days.
A BMC official said that the improvement in doubling rate is significant and indicates that the spread of the Covid-19 infection is slowing down. While the overall growth rate of Covid cases in the city has been 3.6%—a drop from 6% in April—the death rate has been hovering around 3.3%.
A Central team visited Mumbai on Friday to take stock of various containment zones as well as civic hospitals, including KEM, and jumbo facilities for Covid-19 patients. The team met BMC chief I S Chahal to discuss relaxation of the lockdown in containment zones.
The Dharavi area reported 17 new patients, taking the cases in the locality to 1,889. This was a sharp dip compared to the number of patients reported over the last month every day from the area.
Thane city, which has emerged as the worst-hit satellite city of Mumbai, recorded five deaths and 152 fresh cases on Friday. The tally in Thane is 3,795 cases and 113 deaths so far.
Navi Mumbai, which witnessed four deaths and 86 cases on Friday, has a tally of 2,643 cases and 87 deaths. Kalyan-Dombivli on Friday reported 54 new patients, taking the case tally there to 1,327, with 34 deaths.
Panvel civic commissioner Sudhakar Deshmukh said, “The Covid-19 situation is under control. The majority of cases include residents working in Mumbai and the Navi Mumbai municipal corporation jurisdiction. We have taken all measures to contain the coronavirus scare.”
As on Friday, Maharashtra had 83 laboratories that were testing for Covid-19, of which 46 were government and 37 were private laboratories. A total of 5.22 lakh samples have been tested so far, according to the state government. Maharashtra is carrying out 3,827 tests per 10 lakh of population, as against the national average of 2,832 tests per 10 lakh of population.
The rate of recovery of the state as on Friday was 43.81%, and a total of 35,156 people have been discharged so far, the state update said.