Maharashtra continued to report more than 3,000 COVID-19cases for the third consecutive day. 3,524 new cases and 59 fatalities were reported on Friday, pushing its respective tallies to 19,35,636 and 49,580 so far. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 recovery rate has almost touched 95 per cent. 4,279 patients have recovered and were discharged in the last 24 hours, pegging the count at 18,32,825.
Mumbai, meanwhile, reported a slight drop in the daily cases on Friday. 631 new infections and nine deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. The corresponding counts have now reached 2,94,067 and 11,125.
However, in December, Maharashtra had recorded a total of 103,286 COVID-19 cases, which is a 26% decrease from the number of cases recorded in November (1,40,121), and a 62% decrease from the number of cases recorded in October (2,77,484).
Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said on Thursday, “The situation in the state is under control despite our expectations that cases will surge. Strengthened surveillance, public participation, and herd immunity have helped the state bring down its numbers considerably in the past three months.” Maharashtra has conducted 12,747,633 tests so far.
On Thursday, Awate said, “At its peak in mid-September, Maharashtra’s positivity rate was 24.6% on an average day, which means every 4th sample that we tested was positive. Now, the positivity rate is about 7% per day.” Positivity per cent is the total number of cases that have tested positive for the virus, as a percent of the total tests done. Maharashtra’s positivity rate as of Thursday is 15.16% in comparison to December 1, when it was 16.75%. In November, Maharashtra’s positivity rate hovered around 18%, in October and September it was around 20%, in August it was 18%, and in July it was 19.6%.