29 October,2020 05:21 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Health workers take the details of a resident at a COVID-19 screening site in Mumbai. Pic/AFP
The Maharashtra government on Thursday extended the ongoing lockdown till November 30 as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the state.
Earlier this month, the state had permitted hotels, food courts, restaurants and bars to restart operations at 50 per cent capacity. However, schools, colleges and other educational and coaching institutions remain closed.
Maharashtra's situation continued to ease with a decline in deaths, improved recoveries and falling fatality rate, health officials said on Wednesday.
The state witnessed 91 deaths on Wednesday - compared to the peak of 515 reported on September 15 - taking the state's death toll to 43,554.
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The state recorded 6,738 new cases - around one-third compared to the peak single-day tally of 24,886 reported on September 11 - taking the state's tally to 16,60,766 cases.
The state's recovery rate increased from 89.39 per cent to 89.53 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 2.62 per cent.
Simultaneously, another chunk of 8,430 fully recovered patients returned home - taking up the total number of discharged patients to 14,86,926 - much higher than the 129,746 active cases currently present in the state.
As per Wednesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 16 minutes and 281 new cases added every hour to the state's tally, though 11 districts notched zero fatalities.
Of the 91 deaths declared, one-third were from Mumbai alone at 31, followed by 10 in Nagpur, 7 in Pune, 6 in Nashik, 5 in Thane, 4 in Solapur, 3 each in Kolhapur, Jalna and Wardha, 2 each in Palghar, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Sangli and Akola, and 1 each in Raigad, Nandurbar, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Aurangabad, Washim, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.
Remaining in the sub-50 range for the 26th day this month, Mumbai recorded 31 fatalities, taking the city's overall death toll to 10,196, while the number of corona cases shot up by 1,354 to 254,240.
Of the total 8 circles, Mumbai circle's (MMR, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) MMR fatalities shot up by 39 and the toll increased to 17,835, while another spike of 2,502 new infectees took its tally to 577,078.
With another 11 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll zoomed to 9,456, while the daily infections increased by 1,306 to 421,903.
Meanwhile, responding positively to the Maharashtra Government's proposal to open up the suburban railways for all commuters, the Central Railway and Western Railway have sought more details to implement the plans.
The spokespersons - WR's Sumit Thakur and CR's Shivaji Sutar - said that they would work with the state government to hammer out the nitty-gritties in this regard even as commuters and passengers groups built pressure to allow access to all for local trains from November 1.
On an average, around 85 lakh commuters use the 3,200 services on the Mumbai suburban section daily, serving Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts of the congested Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The MMR network - the lifeline of Mumbai - is spread over 390- kms with 157 stations transporting the commuters to and from their homes and workplaces, including the Mumbai's famed Dabbawalas.
The state government has prepared a schedule with the categories of the people who would be permitted to commute, both essential workers and others in the peak hours or non-peak periods, besides one Ladies Special train every hour, as per a letter issued by Disaster Management Secretary Kishore Raje Nimbalkar late on Wednesday.
The railways have sought certain additional details on the proposal from the state government and it is expected that after a joint meeting, the plans may fructify in the next 2-3 days.
(With inputs from agencies)
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