Maharashtra records 8,992 new Covid-19 cases; no improvement in daily count

Maharashtra on Friday recorded 8,992 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the count to 6,140,968. The tally of active cases further dipped to 112,231 as 10,458 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours. The state saw 200 casualties, taking the toll up to 125,034, which also includes 538 fatalities added as part of the reconciliation process of Covid deaths.

Aurangabad reported the highest toll with 46 deaths, followed by Kolhapur with 39 fatalities. The Kolhapur district recorded 29 deaths, while the city reported 10 fatalities.

For the past one month, Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra is not improving. The state has been reporting between 8,000 to 10,000 cases since the first week of June. In the last nine days, it has reported 79,595 cases which on average comes to 8,843 cases a day. Last month, the average daily cases of the state were recorded at 10,542.

In the last 24 hours, the state tested 214,862 samples and had a positivity rate of 4.18%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 14.01%, according to the data issued by the state health department on Friday.

On Friday, Mumbai clocked 596 cases, taking the tally to 726,633 cases to date. It also recorded 13 fatalities taking the toll to 15,599.

After cases of Delta-plus variants were found, the state government has imposed stricter norms by reducing the five-level relaxation plan to three. The first two levels having maximum relaxations were removed till further order, according to a notification issued by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte on June 25. However, its effect is yet to be seen.

“With doing away with the five-level relaxation plan, we were expecting that the daily cases will go further down, and the situation will be improved, however, that is not happening. It indicates that the existing restrictions are not being implemented strictly and this leniency needs to be dealt with,” said a senior official from the state health department.

Meanwhile, Vaccination drive in the state suffered a setback on Friday as it could not be continued at many places including Mumbai and Aurangabad owing to a shortage of vaccine doses. On Friday, the state vaccinated 195,396 doses which are half of what it has been covering for the last four days, according to the data available on the Co-WIN portal.

It has vaccinated 328,375 doses, 395,070 doses, 637,826 doses and 323,189 doses on July 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively, states the data available on the portal.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that the state is not getting enough stock of vaccine doses to speed up the drive. “The country is producing only two vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) at present and two other vaccines — Sputnik and Moderna have been allowed for vaccination. We are not getting adequate numbers of vaccine doses and hence facing difficulty in speeding up the drive as per our plans,” Pawar said in Pune on Friday.