Maha: For second day, Covid cases remain above 46K; deaths increase

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) A day after the states Covid-19 tally shot past the 7 million-mark, new cases in Maharashtra remained in the 46,000 range for the second day, and although fatalities went up, no fresh Omicron case was reported, health officials said here on Thursday.

After recording a record high of 46,723 Covid cases on Wednesday, the state’s figures dropped slightly to 46,406 on Thursday, while fatalities increased from 32 a day before to 36 now, with the mortality rate dropping marginally from 2.01 per cent to 2 per cent.

From the peak of 207 Omicron cases detected on January 9, the state’s tally of the latest variant came down to zero on Thursday.

The health authorities are continuing intensive surveillance of passengers arriving at the three international airports – Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur – since December 1.

A total of 40,938 travellers have landed here from the ‘high risk’ countries of which 523 have tested positive along with 579 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron.

Besides, another staggering 4,265 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing and the results of 64 are awaited, the officials said.

Of the 46,406 new Covid-19 cases reported on Thursday, Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone accounted for 26,537 infections, while Mumbai city remained at a high with 13,702 new cases.

The next is Pune Circle’s 10,865 infectees, followed by Nashik Circle’s 2,813, Nagpur Circle’s 2,805, Kolhapur Circle’s 1,158, Latur Circle’s 965, Aurangabad Circle’s 655 and Akola Circle’s 608 cases.

The number of people sent to home quarantine shot up — from 15,29,452 on Wednesday to 17,95,631 on Thursday — while another 9,124 were shunted to institutional quarantine.

Mumbai, Pune and Thane remain at the top with the highest number of active cases currently present in the state, with the afflictions shooting up from 240,122 a day before to 251,828 on Thursday. The recovery rate dropped from 94.52 per cent a day earlier to 94.39 per cent now.

The state’s cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 70,81,067 cases and 141,737 deaths, while a total of 66,83,769 patients have fully recovered till date.

–IANS
qn/arm