February reported only 14.44% Covid cases compared to January

For the fifth day in a row, Maharashtra reported fewer than 1,000 cases as 675 fresh infections were recorded on Tuesday, taking the count to 7,866,380 cases

Mumbai For the fifth day in a row, Maharashtra reported fewer than 1,000 cases as 675 fresh infections were recorded on Tuesday, taking the count to 7,866,380 cases.

Even though the situation is becoming better, the people will continue to mask up and the vaccination drive also needs to be carried on, said Dr Rahul Pandit, a member of the state task force (Bhushan Koyande)

The tally of active cases also dropped to 6,106 after 1,225 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours.

It also saw five casualties and the total number of fatalities stood at 1,43,706.

The state reported 104 cases of Omicron variant on Tuesday. Of them, 41 are from Pune, 14 from Aurangabad, 12 from Sindhudurg, 11 from Mumbai, 8 each from Navi Mumbai and Jalna, 5 from Thane, 3 from Mira Bhayander and 2 from Satara tested positive for the new variant. The total number of Omicron cases reached 4,733, while 4,509 cases have been discharged following a negative RT-PCR test, stated a release issued by the state health department.

The third wave of Covid continued to decline since January third week, a comparison of cases in the last two months shows that February reported only 14.44 per cent of cases than was reported in January when the third wave was at the peak in Maharashtra. In January, the state recorded 1,001,614 cases whereas in February it was reduced to 144,596 cases.

Even though the situation is becoming better, the people will continue to mask up and the vaccination drive also needs to be carried on, said Dr Rahul Pandit, a member of the state task force.

“The third wave has substantially come down. What we need to concentrate on is to go back to our basics, which are masking up, vaccination drive. We also need to trace and track all those who have come in close contact with positive patients. This is how we will be able to identify all potential carriers. If we become slack on either of that then we are putting ourselves into a dangerous situation,” Dr Pandit said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai clocked 77 cases and its tally reached a total of 1,055,631 cases to date. Not a single death was recorded.

In the last 24 hours, the state tested 65,821 samples and had a positivity rate of 1.02%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 10.09%, the release said.

The state also vaccinated 41,497 doses on Tuesday and has administered a total of 155,815,710 doses till date, according to the data available on Co-Win portal.