Maharashtra sees 35,726 new COVID-19 cases & 166 deaths; positivity rate at 13.93%

On Saturday, March 27, Maharashtra recorded 35,726 novel coronavirus cases taking the state's COVID-19 tally to 26,73,461. At present, there are 3,03,475 active cases in the state. With 14,523 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 23,14,579. With Mumbai recording 6123 cases in the day, it remains a major novel coronavirus hotspot in the state. 

166 deaths — 20 each from Akola and Nagpur, 15 from Nandurbar, 12 from Mumbai, 10 each from Nashik and Pune, 7 from Parbhani, 6 from Amravati, 5 each from Wardha, Aurangabad, Solapur, Panvel and Kalyan Dombivali, 4 each from Navi Mumbai, Jalgaon and Pimpri Chinchwad, three each from Buldhana, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur and Raigad, two each from Mira Bhayandar, Nanded and Gadchiroli and one each from Gondia, Chandrapur, Washim, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Kolhapur, Vasai Virar and Ulhasnagar were reported on Saturday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 101 occurred in the last 48 hours, 26 in the last week and the rest from the period before. Until now, a total of 54,073 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 1,91,92,750 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 14,88,701 persons are under home quarantine, 15,644 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 13.93 per cent, 86.58 per cent and 2.02 per cent respectively.

COVID-19 vaccination 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 51,63,047 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra so far, 7,17,798 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.