Maha: COVID-19 Tally in Aurangabad Rises to 19,258

AURANGABAD:
The number of COVID-19 cases in Aurangabad rose to 19,258 on Wednesday after 106 more people tested positive for the disease here in Maharashtra, the district administration said.

Among the new cases, 42 were reported from Aurangabad city and 64 from rural parts of the district. Seven more deaths were also reported, taking the total number of COVID-19 fatalities here to 602, the district administration said in a release.

As of now, there are 4,204 active cases in the district, while 14,452 patients have so far been discharged after recovery. Around 1.9 lakh tests, including 1.5 lakh rapid antigen tests and 40,000 RT-PCR tests, have so far been conducted in the city having a population of nearly 11 lakh, Aurangabad Municipal Commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey said on Tuesday.

He claimed that the number of tests being conducted here per lakh population was far more than any other city in the country. On reports of shortage of rapid antigen test kits, Pandey said, “We placed an order of 50,000 kits worth Rs two crore 2 crore a few days back. We may get the stock in a couple of days and then the rapid antigen tests will continue on entry points of the city and through mobile health teams.