COVID crisis: Maharashtra sees 62,919 fresh cases; 2.71 crore samples tested so far

On Friday, April 30, Maharashtra recorded 62,919 novel coronavirus cases taking the State's COVID-19 tally to 46,02,472. At present, there are 6,62,640 active cases in the State. With 69,710 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 38,68,976. In a heartening development, Mumbai too recorded only 3925 new cases. 

828 deaths — 141 from Pune, 89 from Pune, 44 from Nagpur, 40 from Solapur, 39 from Chandrapur, 34 from Nashik, 31 each from Yavatmal and Ahmednagar, 27 from Nanded, 24 from Jalgaon, 22 from Latur, 20 from Thane, 19 from Amravati, 18 from Osmanabad, 17 from Aurangabad, 16 each from Parbhani and Sangli, 14 from Washim, 12 each from Panvel and Jalna, 11 from Buldhana, 9 each from Navi Mumbai and Pimpri Chinchwad, 8 from Ulhasnagar, 7 each from Gadchiroli, Hingoli and Sindhudurg, 6 each from Raigad, Gondia and Wardha, 4 each from Bhandara and Akola, three each from Kolhapur and Vasai Virar and one from Ratnagiri were reported on Friday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 422 occurred in the last 48 hours, 167 in the last week, and 239 from the period before. Until now, a total of 68,813 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 2,71,06,282 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 41,93,686 persons are under home quarantine, 26,462 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate, and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 17 per cent, 84.06 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

COVID-19 vaccination in Maharashtra

Apart from COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, the DCGI accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of Sputnik V on April 12. Moreover, the Union government declared that those vaccines that have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan, or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) will be granted emergency use approval in India. In a huge announcement on April 19, the Centre allowed the vaccination for people aged above 18 from May 1 onwards and mentioned that vaccine manufacturers can supply 50 per cent of its doses to State governments and in the open market.

The private hospitals shall have to procure their supplies of the COVID-19 vaccines exclusively from this quota. On Wednesday, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray announced that people aged between 18-45 will be administered the vaccine free of cost. A total of 1,35,59,695 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra till now, 26,21,889 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.