MUMBAI: The steep upward revision of Covid deaths in Maharashtra continued on Friday, with the addition of 2,213 past deaths, the single-day highest so far, overtaking the 1,522 of Thursday.
Since the latest round of data reconciliation process began on May 17, the state has added 13,830 ‘old’ deaths to the tally.
The daily deaths reported in the state rose slightly to 406 from 393 on Thursday, but new cases dropped to 11,766, The total caseload is now 58.9 lakh, while the total toll climbed to 1,06,367 from 95,344 on May 31.
A senior doctor from the health department said the reconciliation is a standard process that needs to be done in many states and other countries as well.
“Maharashtra’s case fatality rate is still low at 1.7% and that’s reassuring,” he said.
In Mumbai, 721 cases were detected and 24 deaths registered on Friday, taking the overall tally to 7.1 lakh and toll to 15,079 since March 2020.
The city’s positivity rate continued below 3% (2.7%).
Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the Covid task force, said instead of focusing on the number of deaths, “we should concentrate on death audit and identify the causes of deaths so that we can prevent any more deaths”.
The second wave affected more than double the number of people compared to the first wave, and so deaths have been high.
CM Uddhav Thackeray spoke to village heads from Marathwada and Vidarbha and asked them to ensure their villages remain Covid-free.
He suggested that awareness regarding vaccination and other Covid protocols is done in local languages and through other traditional methods.