Mumbai, (Samajweekly) Maharashtras single-day Covid-19 caseload shot above the 40,000-mark on Friday though no new case of the Omicron variant was reported for the day, taking the states overall Covid tally past the 68 lakh-mark, health officials said.
For the 11th consecutive day, the state reported a massive spike in Covid-19 infections and suspect cases whose samples have been sent for genome sequencing.
The state’s Covid-19 count shot up from 36,265 on Thursday to 40,925 on Friday, while fatalities increased from 13 a day earlier to 20 now with a mortality rate of at 2.07 per cent.
After recording 79 Omicron infections on Thursday, the state logged no fresh cases of the variant on Friday, as its tally stood at 876, with Mumbai leading the list.
The health authorities are continuing with intensive surveillance of passengers arriving at the three international airports — Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur — since December 1.
A total of 35,697 travellers have landed here from the ‘high risk’ countries of which 403 have tested positive along with 416 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron.
Besides, another 2,742 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing of which results of 86 are awaited, the officials said.
Of the 40,925 new Covid cases, Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone accounted for 33,235 infections, while Mumbai city remained above the 20,000-mark with 20,971 new cases.
The next is Pune Circle’s 4,765 infectees, followed by Nashik Circle (1,043), Nagpur Circle (931), Kolhapur Circle (389), Latur Circle (194), Aurangabad Circle (211) and Akola Circle (157).
The number of people sent to home quarantine shot up from 585,758 on Thursday to 742,684 now, while another 1,463 were shunted to institutional quarantine on Friday.
Mumbai, Pune and Thane remain at the top with the highest number of active cases in the state, with the afflictions shooting up from 114,847 a day before to 141,492 on Friday. The state presently has a recovery rate of 95.08 per cent.
The state’s cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic stands at 68,34,222 cases and 141,614 deaths, while another 65,47,410 have fully recovered till date.
