State cases spike to 5k+, city accounts for half; old data too, say officials

The state recorded the highest single-day tally (5,218) in the current surge of Covid cases, with Mumbai accounting for nearly half of the cases (2,479) on Thursday.

- Malathy lyer & B B Nayak

Mumbai: Mumbai recorded another death, adding up to 23 fatalities in June so far against the combined toll of 11 deaths in March, April and May. Navi Mumbai also recorded its first Covid death after 4 months when a 30year-old congenital heart patient died due to Covid-related complications on Thursday.

However, health officials are not worried about Thursday's spike that they attributed to the inclusion of some backdated cases. "The ICMR portal was not functional for over 24 hours and the BMC data team was unable to update the tally.

Thursday's Covid update includes some old cases as a result," said state surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate.

The Thursday spike followed a dip in cases in both state and city for the last few days. On Wednesday, Maharashtra's caseload was 60% lower at 3,260 cases while Mumbai's tally was 50% lower at 1,648 cases. Daily hospitalisation increased to 109 after hovering between 85 and 95 for a few days.