21 August,2020 06:40 AM IST | Mumbai | A correspondent
BMC medics take thermal and oxygen readings of residents at Andheri Kurla Road on Thursday. Pic/ Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Maharashtra's COVID-19 count crossed 6.4 lakh on Thursday after officials recorded an all-time high of 14,492 new cases, with Mumbai again reporting over 1,000 new infections. While the city's total count reached over 1.32 lakh, the daily growth rate of infections remained steady at 0.78 per cent.
MEANWHILE, the BMC, besides increasing the COVID-19 testing capacity, is all set to start the trial of the anti-TB drug Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) at KEM Hospital.
The trial will include individuals aged between 60-75 years, who have not been infected with COVID-19 and don't have cancer or are not immunocompromised, said civic officials. The trial, which will include around 250 candidates, will be conducted in F South (Parel) and G South (Worli) wards.
State health department officials said Pune continued to have the highest count with 2,453 cases, while Mumbai had 1,275. Other cities with a high count of cases include Nagpur with 1,045 cases, Nashik with 1,016 and Pimpri-Chinchwad with 1,000. The recovery rate saw a marginal rise to 71.37 per cent, and on Thursday, 12,243 patients were discharged in the state, including 976 in Mumbai, after a full recovery.
The city's recovery rate continues to stand at 80 per cent and the doubling rate is 90 days. Currently, 1.62 lakh COVID-19 patients are being treated across the state, out of which Pune has over 40,000 active cases, Thane over 20,000 and Mumbai has 18,172 admitted patients.
State health department officials recorded 326 more COVID-related deaths reported in the state, with Pune reporting highest casualties at 59 deaths, followed by Mumbai at 46. Other districts with a high death count include Pimpri-Chinchwad with 36 deaths, Kolhapur with 22, Nagpur with 21 and Jalgaon with 20.
The mortality rate of the state now stands at 3.32 per cent and till date, there have been 21,359 COVID-related deaths and 315 deaths due to other causes.
Health officials said out of the total new casualties, 231 occurred in the past 48 hours while 63 last week, and the rest the week before that. In Mumbai, civic officials said 35 of the 49 deceased suffered from other ailments and 28 were senior citizens.
Ten administrative wards have a growth rate higher than the city's average of 0.78 per cent. With a marginal drop, R Central ward continues to have the highest rate of 1.23 per cent. Currently, five wards have a growth rate above 1 per cent.
While K West, G North and K East wards all have more than 900 active cases each, R Central and R South continue to have over 1,000 cases each. Among the administrative wards, G North continues to rank third after K East and P North wards. On Thursday, Dharavi recorded 17 new cases, Dadar 33 and Mahim 19.
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