Maharashtra sees highest 1-day spike in COVID cases & deaths; 79.61 lakh vaccinated so far

On Wednesday, April 7, Maharashtra reported its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 59,907 persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus. This propelled the State's COVID-19 tally to 31,73,261. At present, there are 5,01,559 active cases in the state. With 30,296 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 26,13,627. With Mumbai recording 10,428 cases in the day, it remains a major novel coronavirus hotspot in the state. 

332 deaths —  43 from Nanded, 41 from Nagpur, 24 from Mumbai, 21 from Jalna, 20 each from Solapur and Vasai Virar, 19 from Nandurbar, 14 from Nashik, 12 each from Pune and Navi Mumbai, 11 from Beed, 10 each from Thane and Parbhani, 9 from Jalgaon, 7 from Osmanabad, 6 from Yavatmal, 5 from Wardha, 4 each from Panvel, Sangli, Sindhudurg and Aurangabad, three each from Ahmednagar, Gadchiroli and Buldhana, two each from Akola, Dhule, Washim, Bhandara and Gondia and one each from Latur, Kolhapur and Bhiwandi were reported on Wednesday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 128 occurred in the last 48 hours and 119 in the last week. Until now, a total of 56,652 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 2,11,48,736 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 25,78,530 persons are under home quarantine, 21,212 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 15 per cent, 82.36 per cent and 1.79 per cent respectively.

COVID-19 inoculation in Maharashtra

On January 3, the Drugs Controller General of India approved COVISHIELD and COVAXIN for restricted emergency use. Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India with technology transfer from Oxford University-AstraZeneca, COVISHIELD is a Recombinant Chimpanzee Adenovirus vector vaccine with its overall efficacy of 70.42 per cent. On the other hand, COVAXIN is a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV. On January 16, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the state and inaugurated the vaccination centre at BKC. While a total of 79,61,904 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra so far, 8,66,716 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.