Taking serious note of the worsening situation, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned of stringent norms to be announced shortly, while a decision on whether to go for Lockdown 2.0 will be taken after a review in a couple of days.

 

The state recorded its highest tally of 47,827 new infections on Friday, up from the previous high of 43,183 new cases registered on Thursday, as the overall tally increased to 29,040,076 -- adding over 1,00,000 infections in just three days, after recording 28,129,80 cases on March 31.

 

Four days after the death toll crossed the 54,000-mark on March 28, the state added 481 fatalities on Friday, (comprising the day's toll of 202, plus 279 old, reconciled deaths), taking the overall death toll to 55,379, the worst in the country.

 

Over 2.20 million people are in quarantine, either at home or in institutions, as the state grapples to control the infection.

 

The state's recovery rate continued to drop further, from 85.02 per cent on Thursday to 84.62 per cent on Friday, while the death rate worsened from 1.92 per cent a day earlier to 1.91 per cent.

 

The number of active cases has jumped up from 366,533 to 389,832 now.

 

Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur circles remained the major concern areas due to the galloping figures of deaths and new cases, followed by Latur, Aurangabad, Akola and Kolhapur circles.

 

Incidentally, the Kolhapur circle -- comprising Kolhapur, Sangli, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts -- is the only one which did not report a single fatality on Friday, besides recording the lowest new cases -- 604 -- for the day.

 

Mumbai, the country's commercial capital, reported its highest ever single-day tally of 8,844 new cases on Friday, taking up the overall figures to 432,367, besides reporting 11,727 fatalities till now.

 

The Mumbai Circle -- comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts -- notched its highest daily tally of 15,321 new cases on Friday, taking the total up to 919,382, while its overall death toll reached 20,520.

 

As cases continue to soar in the glamour capital, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed a whopping 657 buildings, besides 70 slums/chawls Mumbai to check the spread of the virus.

 

Of the day's 481 fatalities (including 279 previous deaths announced on Friday), Thane led the chart with 34 deaths, followed by 30 in Nagpur, 22 in Nanded, 19 in Mumbai, 13 in Pune, 10 each in Palghar and Dhule, 8 each in Nashik and Ahmednagar, 7 each in Amravati and Yavatmal, 4 each in Solapur and Osmanabad, 3 each in Raigad and Jalgaon, 2 each in Aurangabad, Hingoli, Latur, Akola, Buldhana, Washim and Chandrapur, 1 each in Satara, Parbhani, Beed and Wardha, besides 2 outsiders.

 

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation shot up from 19,09,498 to 21,01,999 now, while those shunted to institutional quarantine increased from 18,432 to 19,237 on Friday.