Maharashtra records 6,686 new Covid cases, 158 deaths

Thane recorded one Delta Plus variant case. The total number of Delta Plus variant patients count has reached 66 with five deaths

Maharashtra on Friday recorded 6,686 Covid-19 new cases and 158 deaths. Thane recorded one Delta Plus variant case.

A health worker collects swab samples for Covid-19 test of passengers arriving from outstation trains at Dadar station. (HT PHOTO)

According to the state government officials, the said patient is a 50-year female who was infected with mild symptoms on July 22 and has recovered from Covid-19.

The total number of Delta Plus variant patients count has reached 66 with five deaths. Jalgaon leads the state with 13 cases, followed by Ratnagiri with 12 and Mumbai with 11 Delta Plus cases.

There were 218,740 tests done on Friday, while the number of recoveries clocked 5,861.

There are currently 63,004 active patients across the state of which Pune tops with 14,522 patients followed by Satara with 7,068 active patients and Sangli with 6,669.

It was later confirmed in the genome-sequencing report conducted by the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, National Centre for Cell Science, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB).

Dr Wiqar Shaikh, professor of medicine, Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Hospital, said it signifies the arrival of the third wave.

“The mutation is always worse than the original virus. This Delta variant has caused havoc in other countries,” said Dr Shaikh.

“We need to be prepared for such eventuality by beefing up our medical infrastructure and by cracking down on people who are defying Covid-appropriate behaviour,” Dr Shaikh added.

Mumbai on Friday recorded 284 new cases with four deaths with its death toll reaching 15,979. The Covid caseload in the state has now reached 63,82,076, while the death toll is 134,730.