By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, June 2 (IANS): For the third time in a week, Maharashtra recorded 100-plus Covid-19 deaths, including a staggering 74 in Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone, as the state on Tuesday braced for the double whammy of Cyclone 'Nisarga'.

The state recorded its third highest death toll of 103 - after 105 notched on May 27 and the highest-ever 116 reached on May 29 - taking the state tally to 2,465.

Tuesday's toll includes a whopping 74 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone - the worst-hit in the country, besides 2,287 new positive cases recorded in the state.

This comes to roughly one death every 11 minutes, and an average 95 new cases notched every hour, in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and over 2,000 cases daily for the past eight days continuously, with the previous highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24.

With 103 fatalities, the state death toll has touched 2,465 while the total number of Coronavirus patients increased from Monday's 70,013 to 72,300.

The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 38,493 37,534 were 'active cases' - increasing by 959 over Monday's 37,534.

The state recorded a recovery rate of 43.33 per cent and a mortality rate of 3.4 per cent.

Of the total 103 fatalities on Tuesday, 49 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city death toll up to 1,368 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,117 to touch 42,216 now.

Besides Mumbai's 49 deaths, there were 15 fatalities in Thane (Navi Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayander), 10 each in Raigad and Pune, six in Satara, five in Solapur, three each in Sangli and Akola, and one each in Nashik and Ahmednagar.

The victims comprised 68 men and 35 women, and nearly 67 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, a total of 1,225 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged from 30,108 to 31,333.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reiterated that the entire state population has been covered under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Public Health Scheme, whether admitted to public or private hospitals.

Cracking the whip, the Health Department slapped show-cause notices to four top hospitals - Hinduja, Bombay, Jaslok and Lilavati - for allegedly flouting norms by not providing 80 per cent beds for Covid-19 patients at rates stipulated by the government last month.

To discipline such errant hospitals, a civic Health Department official will henceforth be stationed at all private hospitals to ensure Covid-19 patients are not harassed in any manner, Thackeray added.

As a precaution against Cyclone Nisarg likely to hit Maharashtra's Raigad on Wednesday, the government shifted over 60 patients from the 1,000-bed field hospital at Bandra Kurla Complex to the Goregaon NESCO hospital.

The MMR (Thane Division) continued to cause grave concerns with 74 fresh Covid-19 deaths taking the toll to 1,682 and 54,951 positive cases.

Though trailing a distant third after Mumbai and Thane, Pune Division fatalities touched 445, besides 9,692 patients.

Since June 1, Thane district with 10,404 cases and 230 fatalities, has shot past Pune district with 8,196 patients and 348 deaths.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 166 deaths and 2,323 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 70 fatalities and 1,984 cases, and finally Akola Division with 51 deaths and 1,099 cases.

Latur Division has 11 deaths and 381 cases, Kolhapur Division 13 deaths and 1,023 patients, and finally, Nagpur Division with 12 deaths and 785 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 567,552 to 570,453 on Tuesday, while those in institutional quarantine went down by 1,092 to 35,097.

In another relieving news for patients, there are as many as 72,538 beds currently available for quarantine in the state.

The state's containment zones increased from 3,294 to 3,730 on Tuesday while 10,019 health teams have fanned out around the state to survey a population of around 71.6 lakhs till date.