With no let up in the continued increase in the number of Covid-19 infections, Maharashtra shot past 8700 cases for the second consecutive day to register 8,702 fresh cases on Thursday, while 56 people succumbed to the pandemic in various parts of the state.
A day after the state registered 8807 cases which was incidentally the second highest number of cases recorded in 129 days – after 9060 cases witnessed on October 18 last year, Thursday’s infection tally of 8702 came close to the one registered on Wednesday.
However, the daily Covid-19 toll came down from 80 on Wednesday to 56 on Thursday.
With 8702 new cases, the total number of infections jumped from 21,21,119 to 21,29,821. Similarly, with 56 new deaths, the total number of deaths rose from 51,937 to 51,993.
As 3,744 patients were discharged from the hospitals across the state after full recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March last year went up to 20,12,367. The recovery rate in the state dropped marginally from 94.70 per cent to 94.49 per cent..
With five fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai rose from 11,458 to 11,463, while the infected cases went up by 1145 to trigger a jump in the infections from 3,21,699 to 3,22,844.
Meanwhile, the number of “active cases” total cases in the state went up from 59,358 to 64,260. The fatality rate in the state dropped from 2.45 per cent at 2.44 per cent.
Pune district, which continued to be the worst-affected city-district in Maharashtra, saw the total number of cases increase from 4,03,782 to 4,05,307, while the total number of deaths in Pune went up from 8,044 to 8,048.
Thane district remained in the third spot --after Pune and Mumbai – after the total number of infections rose from 2,77,580 to 2,78,288 while the total deaths climbed from 5,795 to 5,803.
Of the 1,59,41,773 samples sent to laboratories, 21,21,119 have tested positive (13.31 per cent) for COVID-19 until Thursday.
Currently, 2,95,578 people are in home quarantine while 2,446 people are in institutional quarantine.