By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, May 25 (IANS): Exactly 65 days after recording the first Covid-19 death, Mumbai on Monday crossed 1,000-mark with 38 deaths, taking the death toll to 1,026, while the Mumbai Metropolitan Region notched over 40K cases, health officials said here.

Maharashtra recorded 60 Covid-19 deaths on Monday and the number of cases reached 52,667 with 2,436 new infections.

This comes to roughly one death every 24 minutes, and an average 102 new cases recorded every hour in the state on Monday.

The state has been recording fatalities above 50 and new patients over 2,000 daily for the past nine consecutive days now, and the previous highest 24-hour figure for infections was 3,041 cases on May 24.

With 60 fatalities -- down by 16 from the highest ever 76 notched on May 19 -- the state's death toll has touched 1,695 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased from 50,231 on Sunday to 52,667 on Monday.

The health department said of the total number of cases declared Monday, 35,178 were 'active cases' -- swelling by 1,190 over Sunday's 33,988.

Of the total 60 fatalities, 38 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city deaths up from Sunday's 988 to 1,026 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,430 cases to touch 31,972 today.

Mumbai's congested Dharavi slum continued to be a major hot spot with 42 new cases Monday, taking the total number of infectees to 1,583 there and 59 deaths till date.

Besides Mumbai's 38 deaths, including one from Bihar, there were 11 fatalities in Pune, 6 in Thane (Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan-Dombivali), 2 in Aurangabad, and one each in Ratnagiri and Solapur.

They comprised 42 men and 198 women, and nearly 78 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, 1,186 fully cured patients returned home Monday, taking the number of those discharged to 15,786.

As part of the easing up of domestic air travel, Mumbai International Airport Ltd on Monday handled 47 incoming and outgoing flights by seven airlines catering to 14 national sectors.

They included 3,752 outbound passengers, maximum on the New Delhi sector and 1,100 arrivals, with full Covid-19 protocols implemented.

The Muslim community of Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur donated their Ramzan monthly expenses to sponsor a 10-bed intensive care unit at the Indira Gandhi General Hospital here which was dedicated online by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Thackeray announced that by May 31, 2,475 Covid-19 beds, many with ICU-Oxygen, will be operational at the upcoming jumbo hospitals in Bandra Kurla Complex, NSCI Worli, and NESCO Goregaon, and in each ward in Mumbai 100-bed hospitals with 20 ICU beds have been taken over.

The number of ambulances in the city for Covid-19 has gone up from 100 to 450 now and their services will be available through a mobile app, while the availability of hospital beds data will be available real-time on a dashboard, the CM added.

The Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC) Ltd distributed 2 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to the people of the worst-hit Dharavi, said Industry Minister Subhash Desai.

The MMR continued to cause grave concerns with 1,154 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting to 40,438.

Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 321, besides 6,933 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 103 deaths and 1,618 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 49 fatalities and 1,508 cases, and finally Akola Division with 34 deaths and 766 cases.

There's Latur Division with 8 deaths and 249 cases, Kolhapur Division with 6 deaths and 527 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 8 deaths and 577 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased from 499,387 to 530,247 Monday -- a jump of 30,860 -- and those in institutional quarantine went up from 35,107 to 35,479, a spurt of 372 suspect cases.

The state's containment zones increased from 2,283 to 2,391 on Monday and 16,106 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 66.1 lakh in the state.