Vidarbha reports highest one-day Covid toll of 190

Nagpur district leads the table with its highest-ever toll of 74, followed by Bhandara and Yavatmal, which continue to be the next biggest hotspots, registering 22 deaths each.

As many as sixteen deaths each were recorded at Gondia and Chandrapur. Amravati district has also shown a steady rise in Covid toll with 10 deaths reported on Thursday. Gadchiroli (9), Akola (7), Buldana (3) and Washim (5) were the other affected districts.

On Thursday, the region reported 12,533 new Covid-19 cases, after 55,588 tests were conducted in the region, making the positivity rate as high as 22 per cent.

The 74 deaths in Nagpur include 30 deaths from rural parts, 39 from Nagpur city and five deaths of patients from outside the district.

Nagpur’s positivity rate continues to be a worrying factor, with more than 25 per cent of samples testing positive on Thursday.

Bhandara Collector Sandeep Kadam said, “The main reason for the high number of deaths in Bhandara district is because of late hospitalisation. Patients stay at home for days and come to the hospital only when their health deteriorates. The other reason is that Bhandara gets a lot of serious patients from outside the district too.”

Kadam, however, said, “Bhandara is testing on a big scale, resulting in a high number of detections. On Thursday, we conducted over 7,000 tests, which is a very high number for a population of 13 lakh.”

Yavatmal Collector Amol Yedge also said that people are coming to hospitals late after developing complications, which was the main reason for the high number of deaths in the district. “We have now started a door-to-door campaign for detection of patients at home so that we can take care of them early,” said Yedge.

The region’s recovery rate also dipped to a new low of 79.6 per cent on Thursday. It now has an active case load of 1,17,196. Against the cumulative case load 6,25,591 till date, Vidarbha has seen 5,01,705 patients being discharged.