Maharashtra reports jump in cases with 5,368 new Covid-19 infections

In a major spike, Maharashtra on Thursday reported 5,368 new coronavirus infections and 198 cases of the Omicron variant, the state health department said.

The day before, the state had recorded 3,900 new COVID-19 cases. The deaths of 22 coronavirus patients were reported on Thursday.

One of them, a 52-year-old man with a travel history to Nigeria who died of a heart attack on December 28, tested positive for Omicron on Thursday. But his death had nothing to do with the infection, the health bulletin said. The patient had been admitted to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's Yashwantrao Chavan Hospital. He also had diabetes for the last 13 years, it said.

The caseload of COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 66,70,754, while death toll reached 1,41,518. The number of active cases in the state rose to 18,217.

In a span of 10 days from December 21 to 30 the new daily cases surged from 825 to 5,368.

Maharashtra on Thursday reported 198 new cases of the Omicron variant, including 190 in Mumbai alone.

But as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the city reported 153 Omicron cases during the day, including 141 patients who had not traveled abroad recently. The difference in state and BMC figures could not be reconciled. The tally of Omicron cases found in the the state so far went up to 450.

Of the 198 Omicron cases reported by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) during the day, only 30 patients had recent international travel history. Four Omicron cases were reported in Thane city, while Satara, Nanded and the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations reported one case each. Of the new COVID-19 cases, the Mumbai region recorded 4,556 cases, Pune 512, Nashik 107, Kolhapur 64, Nagpur 44, Aurangabad 33, Latur 28, Akola 14. The Pune region recorded 15 deaths, Latur four, Mumbai three deaths.

Nagpur, Akola, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Nashik regions did not report any death.

The health department said that 1,193 COVID-19 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery count to 65,07,330.

The state's recovery rate stands at 97.55 per cent.

Currently, 1,33,748 people are in home quarantine and 1,078 others are in institutional quarantine, it added.

Nine districts and three municipal corporations did not report any fresh COVID-19 case.

As many as 1,18,543 coronavirus tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally of tests conducted to 6,88,87,303.

Maharashtra's coronavirus figures are as follows: New cases 5,368; Total cases - 66,70,754; Active cases 18,217; Total deaths 1,41,518; Recovery count 65,07,330, Total tests: 6,88,87,303.