Maharashtra reports 850 new Covid cases, four deaths in last 24 hours

Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 850 fresh coronavirus cases and four fatalities, the health department said.

With new additions, the state's COVID-19 tally rose to 81,61,349 and the death toll to 1,48,502, as per a health department bulletin.

The state had recorded 993 cases and five fatalities on Friday.

Of the four fresh COVID-19 fatalities in the state, two were recorded in Mumbai and the rest two in Kalyan-Dombivaliy city.

The current case fatality rate in Maharashtra is 1.81 per cent.

Mumbai logged 177 COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

At present, the dominant variant of COVID is Omicron XBB.1.16. A total of 681 cases were found to be infected with this variant in the state so far. There were five deaths reported among the cases of this variant, the bulletin said.

Since January 1, a total of 84 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in Maharashtra. While 72.62 per cent of these deaths have occurred in individuals above 60 years of age, 81 per cent of the deceased had comorbidities and 12 per cent did not have any comorbidity, it said.

State Health Minister Tanaji Sawant has said the XBB.1.16 variant is prevalent but there is no cause for concern and people should not panic due to the rise in cases.

He said the present wave will come down to the endemic stage by May 15 and a downward trend will be seen next month.

A total of 648 people recovered from coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries in Maharashtra to 80,06,680, leaving the state with 6,167 active cases as on April 22.

The recovery rate in the state is 98.10 per cent.

The health department said 16,412 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the number of samples examined so far in Maharashtra to 8,68,85,431.

Of the 16,412 tests, 13,445 were conducted in government laboratories, 2,799 in private laboratories and 168 by self-testing.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is as follows: Fresh cases 850, fresh fatalities 4, active cases 6,167, recoveries 648, and tests: 16,412.