New high: Maharashtra records 2,347 cases in a day

Of the 63 dead, 38 passed away in Mumbai, nine in Pune, six in Aurangabad, three in Solapur, three in Raigad and one each in Thane, Panvel, Latur and Amravati. At least 41 of the 63 suffered from other conditions like hypertension, diabetes, heart or lung problems. At least 22 people of the 63 who died had no other comorbidity.

Until last week, Mumbai was recording less than 1,000 new cases a day. With the rise in the number, discussions are underway to add more beds in private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients. Private hospitals are slated to increase bed capacity to 2,500 from the existing less than 1,000.

Currently, government hospitals are handling 80 per cent of the Covid-19 load.

Mumbai civic officials have attributed the sudden spike on Sunday to 590 cases that were recorded between May 10 till May 14 in private laboratories but not added to the official tally. These cases were verified by the government on Sunday.

BMC has decided to test any person with cough, cold or breathing difficulty for Covid-19 if prescribed by a doctor, along with symptomatic high-risk contacts of the infected.

On Sunday, 678 people with suspected symptoms were admitted in various Covid care centres. While there is sufficient capacity to house suspected patients, BMC continues to struggle to find beds for critically and moderately ill patients. Soon intensive care units will start functioning in NESCO (Goregaon), NSCI in Worli and Bandra-Kurla Complex, where around 5,000 beds are going to be set up.

Maharashtra is testing 2,137 people per million population, while it is higher than national average of 1,630 per million test. The state lags behind Tamil Nadu.