Maharashtra's daily COVID-19 cases surge past 6,000 after nearly 3 months

Frontline workers sit in an observation room after being vaccinated, at Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital, Kandivli, on Friday. Pic/Satej Shinde

After nearly three months, the state on Friday saw the number of new COVID-19 cases surge past 6,000. The state had last reported more than 6,000 cases in November end, and was registering more than 5,000 infections over the past two days. Mumbai, which had reported over 700 cases on Thursday, also saw the daily tally surge beyond 800 on Friday.

Daily casualties also spiked slightly in comparison to past few days and touched 44 on Friday. The government and civic corporations again asked citizens to mandatorily follow all the COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. The BMC, meanwhile, said it is monitoring the situation closely.

Health department officials reported 6,112 new cases in Maharashtra on Friday. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has reported 1,411 new cases, including 823 in Mumbai. Numbers are also rising in Thane Municipal, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivli corporations that have recorded 138, 126 and 146 cases, respectively.

Of the 44 COVID-19-related deaths in the state, six were reported in Nagpur. The MMR reported eight casualties, including five in Mumbai, two in Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, and one in Raigad. The BMC officials said of the five deceased, four patients were suffering from other ailments and all five were senior citizens.

The recovery rate in the state has also dropped over the past few days and now stands at 95.32 per cent, with 2,159 patients discharged across the state on Friday. Mumbai's recovery rate was 94 per cent on Friday, while the doubling rate dropped to 393 days. The growth rate of cases in the city was at 0.18 per cent. The city has so far recorded 3,17,310 confirmed infections, including 6,577 active cases.

The mortality rate in the state was 2.48 per cent, with the toll reaching 51,713. The number of deaths due to other causes was 1,191. These include patients who had contracted COVID-19 and then recovered, but later died of other complications.

So far, over 1.55 crore laboratory samples have been collected across the state, out of which 20.87 lakh have tested positive, with 13.39 per cent positivity ratio.

6,577
No. of active COVID-19 cases in the city as of Friday