Maharashtra reports 9,170 Covid cases, Mumbai logs 6,347 infections

The state, which witnessed a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases in the last 11 days of 2021, also recorded six new Omicron variant infections.

Mumbai: Maharashtra reported 9,170 new Covid-19 cases and seven deaths in the last 24 hours, the health department said on Saturday, adding that there was an increase of 1,103 infections from the daily count the previous day.

A health worker collects the swab sample of a passenger for Covid-19 test at CSMT in Mumbai on Saturday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

The state, which witnessed a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases in the last 11 days of 2021, also recorded six new Omicron variant infections.

On Friday, the state had reported 8,067 Covid-19 cases and eight deaths. On Thursday, the new cases were 5,368 and 22 deaths.

The COVID-19 case tally of Maharashtra rose to 66,87,991 on Saturday, an official said.

Health minister Rajesh Tope said the state government will have to impose stringent restrictions if the situation does not come under control.

“The chief minister is also of the view that stern action should be taken if required for the welfare of the people. We have come to the first step (of lockdown) by restricting the number of people attending marriages, funerals and social, religious and political gatherings. To see the impact, we will have to wait for a few days as they were imposed only from January 1 midnight. If it doesn’t come under control then the state can consider bringing restrictions on restaurants, cinema halls, schools and colleges as there are no restrictions on them as of now,” the health minister said.

The death toll of the pandemic has increased to 1,41,533. The state also recorded six new cases of Omicron – all from Pune.

The state has so far recorded 460 cases of Omicron, marked as a ‘variant of concern’ by the WHO.

The case fatality rate in the state is 2.11 per cent, the official said. As many as 1,445 patients were discharged, taking the tally of those recovered so far to 65,10,541.

The coronavirus recovery rate in the state is 97.35 per cent. Maharashtra now has 32,225 active cases.

Mumbai recorded 6,347 new COVID-19 cases, a steep rise from 5,428 the day before. Altogether 451 patients were discharged, taking the number of those recovered to 7,50,158, a BMC official said.

The city’s overall recovery rate is 95 per cent, he said. There are now 22,334 active cases in Mumbai, he added.

The doubling rate in Mumbai is now 251 days, he said. The growth rate of cases during December 25- December 31 is 0.28 per cent, he added.