Maharashtra records 18,600 new Covid-19 cases, lowest in over 2 months

On March 16, Maharashtra recorded 17,864 new Covid-19 cases. The latest test positivity rate was recorded at 7.36%, the lowest since 7.12% on February 22.

Maharashtra’s daily caseload of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) fell to 18,600 on Sunday, taking the state’s infection tally to 5,731,815, a health department bulletin showed. Also on the day, 402 people succumbed to the viral disease, taking Maharashtra’s related death toll to 94,844, the bulletin showed further.

Representative Image (PTI)

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This is for the first time in more than two months when Maharashtra has added less than 20,000 fresh Covid-19 infections in a single-day. On March 16, the western state saw 17,864 new cases. This also for the eleventh straight day when there were less than 30,000 fresh cases; on May 19, Maharashtra logged 34,031 cases as well as 594 related deaths.

According to Sunday’s data, the latest positive cases were out of 252,623 samples tested for the disease, down from 258,799 tests on May 29. The latest test positivity rate stood at 7.36%, the lowest since February 22, when a positivity rate of 7.12% was recorded. Total 34,861,608 tests have been conducted in Maharashtra till now, as per the data.

Also, 22,532 more people recovered from Covid-19 on Sunday, as against 31,964 on Saturday, taking the total number of recoveries to 5,362,370, with the recovery rate reaching 93.55%.

These latest numbers come on a day chief minister Uddhav Thackeray addressed the people on the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra, extending lockdown-like norms by 15 days. The norms were first announced in mid-April to break the chain of transmission, and were, on May 13, extended till June 1, two days before these were scheduled to end. On May 27, state health minister Rajesh Tope hinted at an extension of the norms, at least in places with a high positivity rate.