After highs, Maha Covid cases cool down, toll crosses 18K

Mumbai (IANS): After highs in the past couple of days, Maharashtra Covid-19 cases cooled down though the state death toll crossed the 18,000 mark, health officials said here.

The state notched 293 Covid deaths on Monday - down from the highest 390 fatalities on Sunday, and recorded 9,181 new cases, dropping below the peak of 12,822 (August 8).

The state death toll shot up from 17,757 a day earlier to 18,050, while the total number of cases went up from 515,332 to 524,513 now - both highest in the country.

According to Monday's figures, there was one death roughly every five minutes and a staggering 383 new cases every hour added to the state tally.

The state recovery moved up from 68.25 per cent to 68.33 per cent on Monday, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 3.44 per cent.

A total 6,711 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 358,421 - considerably higher than the 147,735 'active cases' currently in the state.