25,833 new coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, highest since pandemic began

Express News Service
MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Thursday recorded 25,833 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day spike since last March when the first coronavirus infection was detected.

The last time the state reported such high cases were in September last year- 24,896. The coronavirus cases in Maharashtra have seen an exponential rise over the last few weeks. The cases are doubling with each passing day. However, the mortality rate is lower than the previous year.

“Mostly, asymptomatic cases are being reported and the cases are coming from clusters not individuals like earlier. Therefore, Covid-19 numbers are increasing.” said a government official who requested to stay anonymous.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to expedite the virus-containing measures and asked that in testing, the 70 per cent should be RTPCR test.

In Maharashtra, today 25,833 new #COVID19 positive cases, 58 deaths and 12,764 cured and discharge reported. @NewIndianXpress
— Sudhir Suryawanshi (@ss_suryawanshi) March 18, 2021

Maharashtra’s COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases: 23,96,340, new cases: 25,833, death toll: 53,138, discharged: 21,75,565, active cases: 1,66,353, people tested so far: 1,79,56,830.

Mumbai’s COVID-19 tally increased to 3,52,851 and eight deaths took the fatality count to 11,559. Mumbai division reported 5,190 new cases and 14 deaths.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope asked the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan for more vaccine doses in order to expedite the vaccination process.

Tope had asked 2.20 crore vaccine doses to vaccinate the 1.70 lakh people in the co-morbid and senior citizen category. The central government has provided 56 lakh vaccines and out of which 36 lakh are already used.

Tope said on one hand the Covid-19 positive cases are exploding while on another hand, the state is facing shortage of vaccines. “At this stage, the lockdown cannot be the answer for rising covid 19 cases, but rapid and massive vaccinations at local and district levels. Besides, we need to have 10 days advance stock otherwise the vaccine centre will run out of stock,” Tope said.

In Maharashtra, at several places, the local authorities have declared a lockdown, the schools and colleges are again shut. Except essential services, other services are shut down.

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