MUMBAI: A day after the state crossed the grim milestone of 50,000 Covid deaths, Maharashtra’s daily coronavirus toll dropped to 34 on Sunday, the lowest in the last six days. This was a significant decline from an average of 66 deaths seen in the past days. The state’s total Covid-19 toll as of Sunday stood at 50,061.
Mumbai too recorded only five deaths on Sunday, the lowest in eight days. The last the city had seen fewer than five deaths was on January 4 when three lives were lost to Covid-19. Mumbai’s death toll has now reached 11,186.
The city has consistently seen death in single digits since December 31 except on January 8 when there were 11 deaths. The state’s case fatality rate has declined to 2.54% while that of Mumbai continues to be 3.74%.
The state, on Sunday, reported 3,558 new cases, taking the overall tally to 19,69,114. Mumbai also reported 657 cases, a marginal rise from 596 recorded on Saturday. The city’s case total has reached 2,98,892, inching closer to the 3-lakh mark. Active cases for the state jumped to 54,179 whereas it dropped for Mumbai to 7,184.
State officials said 4,869 UK returnees have been traced so far, of whom 3,506 have undergone RT-PCR tests and 75 have come positive. The samples of all 75 have been referred to NIV, Pune, for whole genome sequencing. Eleven have so far been found with the UK strain and all are asymptomatic, said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.
BMC’s Suresh Kakani said the city was prepared to start the vaccination drive. The all-India vaccination drive is scheduled to start on January 16.
Meanwhile, the highest cases and deaths in the state on Sunday were reported from the Mumbai circle (1,208 and 12). Within MMR, there were 71 positive cases from Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s areas on Sunday, taking the region’s total Covid count to 51,739. One death was also reported, taking the total toll to 1,069.
Thane city saw 134 new cases on Sunday, taking its tally to 56,653.