MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 67,468 fresh coronavirus cases, taking its tally beyond the 40 lakh mark, while 568 more patients succumbed to the infection, said a state health department official.
The tally of 67,468 infections, the second highest single-day count so far, pushed the COVID-19 caseload of Maharashtra to 40,27,827, he said.
The highest statewide daily count so far - 68,631 - was reported on April 18.
The 568 new fatalities pushed the statewide toll to 61,911, the official said.
Out of the 568 fatalities, 303 occurred in the last 48hours and 160 last week, while 105 deaths took place in period before the last week, but were added to the toll now, the official said.
Also, 54,985 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, raising the number of recovered cases to 32,68,449, he said.
With this, Maharashtra's active caseload increased to 6,95,747, the official said.
Mumbai recorded 7,654 new cases and 62 fatalities, taking the tally to 6,01,713 and the toll to 12,508.
With 2,72,744 new tests, the number of samples examined so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,46,14,480, the official said.
Currently, 39,15,292 people are in home quarantine, while 28,384 are in institutional quarantine in the state, the health department said.
Maharashtra's COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 81.15 per cent, while the fatality rate was 1.54 per cent, the, department said.
The state's positivity rate (percentage of people who test positive out of those tested) stood at 16.36 per cent, it said.
The Mumbai division, including Mumbai city and its satellite towns, recorded 16,491 cases and 150 deaths, taking the count of cases to 12,52,334 and the fatalities to 22,057, he said.
After Mumbai, Raigad district reported the most deaths in the division at 40, the official said.
The Nashik division reported a jump of nearly 3,000 cases from Tuesdays count of 8,601 to 11,578 on Wednesday.
The main contributors to the tally were Nashik city (4,469), Ahmednagar district (2,096) and Jalgaon district (1,003).
Out of 98 fresh deaths in the division, 25 were from Nashik, 24 Nandurbar district, 19 Ahmednagar and 11 from Jalgaon district.
The Pune division saw 13,962 fresh infections, including 5,538 in Pune city and 2,316 in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Out of 68 deaths in the division, Satara and Pune city reported 24 and 21, respectively, the official said.
The Kolhapur division added 2,445 new cases, while Aurangabad division reported 3,145 infections.
The Latur division reported 4,740 cases and 62 deaths.
Out of 62 deaths in the Latur division, 17 were from Osmanabad district and 12 from Beed, he said.
The caseload of the Akola division increased by 2,760, while 38 more patients succumbed with Amravati city (13) and Buldhana district (10) contributing to most of the fatalities, the official said.
The Nagpur division registered 12,347 new cases of COVID-19, including 5,160 in Nagpur city.
The division also reported 94 deaths, of which 32 were in Nagpur city and 23 in Bhandara district, the official said.
As many as 146 COVID-19 patients from other states have been treated in Maharashtra so far.
Of these, 114 have died, he added.
Maharashtra's coronavirus figures as follows: Total cases 40,27,827, new cases 67,468, deaths 61,911, recoveries 32,68,449, active cases 6,95,747, people tested so far 2,46,14,480.
Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was forced to rush oxygen cylinders to a private hospital on Wednesday evening after the latter reported that it had only over an hour's worth of stock.
Hindu Mahasabha Hospital in suburban Ghatkopar was treating 61 COVID-19 patients, of which 11 were on ventilator and others on oxygen support, the BMC said in a release.
Around 5 pm, the hospital management informed the civic body that the oxygen stock with it can last only for over an hour.
The BMC supplied nine jumbo oxygen cylinders by 6.15 pm, while the regular supplier of the hospital provided four dura cylinders.
N-ward office of the civic body sent 15 jumbo cylinders as a backup.
To avoid recurrence of such a situation, the assistant municipal commissioner of N-ward has called a meeting with the hospital management on Thursday, the civic body said.
The BMC has deputed six officers to coordinate oxygen supply.
Last week, the civic body had shifted 168 patients from its six hospitals after facing shortage of oxygen.
All the vaccination centres in Maharashtra's Thane city were forced to be kept shut on Wednesday as the COVID-19 vaccine stock came to an end, Mayor Naresh Mhaske said.
The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) had started vaccination at all its 56 centres to inoculate maximum number of citizens, but as the stock of vaccines has got over and the new supply is yet to come, we were forced to shut these facilities, he said.
Only 300 vaccines were left with the civic body and the stock of these second COVID-19 vaccine doses was given to the Majiwada vaccination centre, he added.
Mhaske urged the central government to quickly provide the vaccines to the cities in Maharashtra, like Thane, if the coronavirus cases need to be curbed.
Vaccination was the only way out, he said.