At a time when the coronavirus cases in Maharashtra neared 6 lakh-mark, state’s academic capital Pune on Sunday broke the record of Mumbai to become the country’s new corona capital with the maximum Covid-19 cases. 

While Mumbai remained at the top in terms of the death toll in the country, Pune on the other hand recorded 130,606 cases and 3,193 deaths, in comparison to Mumbai’s 128,726 cases and 7,133 deaths till date. 

Moreover, Pune has the highest number of active cases at 41,020 as compared to 17,825 in Mumbai. On Sunday, Maharashtra recorded 11,111 new cases taking the overall tally to 5,95,865. 

For the first time in four days, Maharashtra recorded Covid-19 deaths below the 300-mark besides 11,000 plus new cases.

Of the total deaths, Pune has topped the list with 63 deaths, followed by 47 in Mumbai, 36 in Kolhapur and 29 in Thane.

There were also 16 deaths in Nagpur, 13 in Sangli, 10 in Ahmednagar, nine in Dhule, eight each in Nashik and Satara, seven in Jalgaon, six each in Raigad and Solapur, four each in Palghar and Aurangabad, three each in Ratnagiri, Nanded, and Buldhana, two each in Osmanabad, Akola, and Amravati, and one each in Parbhani, Latur, Beed, Bhandara, Gondia, and Chandrapur.

A total of 8,837 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on Sunday, taking the count of such persons to 4,17,123.Pune city reported 1,539 cases and 32 deaths on Sunday. The number of cases in the city is now 79,488 and death toll 2,051.

India has set another record in COVID-19 tests conducted per day. Nearly 9 lakh (8,99,864) testes have been conducted in a single day, the highest tests/day so far. With this, the cumulative tests have reached 3,09,41,264.

Even with such a high level of testing, the positivity has remained low i.e. 8.81% compared to the weekly national average i.e. 8.84%.

India has also recorded the highest single day recoveries of 57,937 in the last 24 hours. This is higher than the confirmed cases added during the same period (55,079). With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have reached nearly 20 lakh (19,77,779). With this the gap between the recovered patients and the active cases has crossed 13 lakh today (13,04,613).

Continuous increase in average daily recoveries has led to India's Recovery Rate touching 73.18% and a low Case Fatality Rate (1.92%). As a result of collaborative and focussed efforts by the Centre and State/UT governments built on effective implementation of the TEST, TRACK, TREAT strategy of the Union Government, 30 States/UTs are reporting lower CFR than the national average. Aggressive TESTING leads to early identification and isolation of positive cases. This coupled with efficient clinical treatment has ensured a law Fatality Rate down.

The actual case load of the country i.e. the active cases (6,73,166), is only 24.91% of the total positive cases. This figure is also exhibiting a steady downward trajectory.

An ever expanding national network of diagnostic labs has ensured the exponentially growing number of tests being conducted across the country. As on date, 1476 total labs are operational with 971 labs in the government sector and 505 private labs. These include:

• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 755 (Govt: 450 + Private: 305)

• TrueNat based testing labs: 604 (Govt: 487 + Private: 117)

• CBNAAT based testing labs: 117 (Govt: 34 + Private: 83)

(With inputs from IANS, PTI)