Covid-19 Outbreak: Maharashtra Death Toll Crosses 700; Delhi Records 6,318 Positive Cases

Maharashtra has reported 37 new Covid-19 deaths on Friday, taking the total toll beyond 700, with total cases crossing the 19,000 mark. Meanwhile, in national capital Delhi, the total number of coronavirus cases has climbed to 6,318, with 338 new cases.

(PTI Photo/Kamal Kishore)

New Delhi: As Maharashtra continues to be the epicenter of highest coronavirus cases - the state reported 37 more Covid-19 deaths on Friday, taking the total toll beyond 700, with total cases crossing the 19,000 mark. With 37 fatalities, the state death toll shot up to 731 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased from to 19,063 with a jump of 1,089. Of the total deaths, 25 were recorded in Mumbai - taking the city toll to 462 and the number of Covid-19 positive patients in the city shot up by 748 to 12,142. Besides Mumbai's 25 deaths, Pune recorded 10 fresh fatalities, while one death each was reported from Amravati and Jalgaon. The dead on Friday comprised 19 men and 18 women, and nearly 73 percent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause major worries with 497 Covid-19 deaths and 14,648 patients. On the positive side, 169 fully cured patients returned home, taking the number of those discharged to 3,470 till date. The number of people in home quarantine increased by a whopping 26,789 to 239,531 and those in institutional quarantine continued to be 13,494, while the state's containment zones increased to 1,139. As many as 13,552 teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 52.6 lakhs in the state till date. Meanwhile, in Delhi, the total number of coronavirus cases has climbed to 6,318, with 338 new cases and two fresh deaths being reported on Friday, according to the Delhi government authorities. On Thursday, the city had recorded its largest single-day spike of 448 new Covid-19 cases. On Thursday night, the total number of cases stood at 5,980 with 66 deaths. With two more fatalities, the death toll from Covid-19 in Delhi has risen to 68. Three more doctors at the civic-run Hindu Rao Hospital here have tested positive for Covid-19, officials said on Friday. The new infections bring the total number of people who have tested positive from this hospital to 10. Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said a 400-bed hospital in the Burari area will be started as a Covid-19 care centre in the next few days. As many as 2,020 patients have recovered so far, while there are 4,230 active cases, the Delhi health department said. A total of 81,367 Covid-19 tests have been conducted till date, it said in a bulletin. The total number of Covid-19 positive patients under home isolation stands at 937, it said. According to the Delhi Health Department bulletin, out of the total 6,318 cases recorded so far, at least 1,451 are admitted to various hospitals like LNJP Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) and AIIMS Jhajjhar, adding 91 of them are in ICU and 18 on ventilators. An order has been issued regarding appointing representatives of the Delhi chief minister at Covid testing centres to manage and resolve individual grievances of patients and medical staff, the bulletin said. Also, an order has been issued to furnish compliance report by all the ICMR authorised labs that no report for Covid-19 is pending beyond 24 hours, it said. (With inputs from agencies) Watch: ''Opening liquor shops was a bad decision''