As many as 7,620 patients were discharged across Maharashtra on Wednesday as opposed to 3,913 fresh COVID-19 cases. As per the State Health Department figures, the number of active cases has dipped below 55,000 to reach 54,573 while the total case tally stands at 18,99,352.
As many as 93 fatalities saw the death toll climb to 48,969. The cumulative recoveries now stand at 18,01,700 while the State’s recovery rate has risen incrementally to 94.51%.
“Of a total 1,22,78,476 laboratory samples tested thus far, 19,06,371 (case positivity rate of 15.53%) have returned positive with nearly 66,000 samples being tested in the last 24 hours,” State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate said, adding that the case fatality stood at 2.57%.
In the backdrop of a new strain in the virus, the State Health Department said that health officers at Mumbai international airport had shared a complete list of travellers who arrived in Mumbai from England between November 23 and December 25 in accordance with the Centre’s guidelines regarding surveillance of passengers coming from the U.K..
“The State has segregated this line list and shared it with districts and municipal corporations across Maharashtra. Respective district administrations and civic bodies will search for these travellers and run a RT-PCR test on them. Samples of positive patients will be referred to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for genome sequencing. This test will verify whether the virus is matching with the new variant or not,” Dr. Awate said.
He said that RT-PCR negative travellers would be followed up for 28 days from their day of arrival inside the country.
Pune district reported over 600 new cases to take its total case tally to 3,68,447 while nine deaths saw its toll reach 7,708. As per the district administration figures, the active cases stand at 8,171 while its recovery rate is 95.30%.
Mumbai city recorded 745 new cases to take its total tally to 2,88,561 of whom only 8,094 are active. As many as 14 fatalities saw the city’s death toll — following due reconciliation process — touch 11,033.
Nagpur district in Vidarbha registered over 300 new cases, taking the district’s total cases to 1,22,539 of whom 4,455 are active. A single death pushed the toll to 3,148.
Western Maharashtra continued with its trend of low cases and fatalities: Satara reported a single death as its toll reached 1,738 while 67 fresh cases saw the total case tally rise to 54,054 of whom 925 are active.
Neighbouring Sangli reported just 27 cases and no deaths as the district’s reported cases climbed to 49,966 of whom only 268 are active. Its death toll remains at 1,763.
Kolhapur recorded a mere six cases and no deaths as its total cases rose to 49,026 of whom 506 are active. The death toll remains at 1,657.
In north Maharashtra, Nashik district added more than 300 cases and 10 deaths as its total case tally touched 113,315 of whom 2,202 are active. Its fatality toll went up to 1,857.
Jalgaon reported only 13 new cases and no deaths as its total number of infections reached 55,724 of whom only 569 are active, while its fatality count is 1,435.
Dr. Awate said that currently, 4,88,723 people across the State were in home quarantine and 3,420 were in institutional quarantine facilities.