As Nagpur’s and Mumbai’s sharp, continuous rise in Covid-19 tally continue to make chief minister Uddhav Thackeray tense, the state on Saturday recorded 15,602 fresh coronavirus cases and 88 deaths, taking the tally to 22,97,793 and the toll to 52,811.

The spike has prompted CM Uddhav to issue a shutdown warning to hotel and mall owners. A day ago, a video surfaced where Nagpur shoppers were seen thronging the Sitabuldi main road without proper social distancing and other Covid precautions.

Many Maharashtra cities and districts have already under partial to near-total restrictions. In the country’s worst-hit district, Pune, the administration has shut down all educational institutions till March 31, all hotels and restaurants will close by 10 p.m., and home deliveries by 11 pm, and other night-time restrictions shall be severely.

Besides similar short-term, long-term, partial or near-total measures are being implemented in several districts like Dhule, Buldhana, Jalgaon, Parbhani, Jalna, in addition to the earlier list of districts. In Nagpur, where a lockdown was announced for March 15-21 by Energy Minister and Guardian Minister Dr. Nitin Raut, the locals are unhappy and Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari claimed that the city administration was “not consulted” in the matter.

The state health department said that of Saturday’s 88 fatalities, 40 occurred in the last 48 hours and 21 in the last week. Rest 27 deaths had occurred in the period preceding the last week.

With 7,461 patients getting discharged from hospitals during the day, the count of recoveries in Maharashtra rose to 21,25,211. Maharashtra is now left with 1,18,525 active cases, it said. At 1,828, Nagpur city recorded the highest number of fresh COVID-19 cases in the state, followed by 1,709 in Mumbai and 1,667 in Pune city.

Mumbai’s Covid-19 tally increased to 3,41,999 while five more fatalities took the toll to 11,528, the department said. Among various divisions in Maharashtra, Pune division comprising civic bodies of Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad as well as districts such as Pune, Solapur and Satara, reported the highest number of 3,365 infections, the department said.

The overall number of cases in the Pune division stood at 5,56,429 and death toll at 11,845. Mumbai division reported 3,198 new cases and 17 fatalities, taking the cumulative caseload to 7,56,184 and the death toll to 19,949, the department said.

Nashik division’s total case tally stood at 3,14,975 and the death toll at 5,369. Kolhapur division has reported 1,20,980 cases and 4,087 deaths until now, while Aurangabad division’s case tally is 89,527 and the death count is 2,094, it said.

Latur division has so far reported 91,512 cases and 2,559 fatalities. Akola division has reported 1,16,438 cases while 1,905 people have succumbed to the COVID-19 disease until now.

Nagpur division has so far reported 2,51,602 infections and 4,912 fatalities. With 97,918 new tests, Maharashtra has so far tested 1,74,08,504 samples for coronavirus.

There are 5,70,695 people in home quarantine while 5,031 are in institutional quarantine across the state. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 22,97,793, new cases 15,602, death toll 52,811, discharged 21,25,211, active cases 1,18,525, people tested so far 1,74,08,504.