Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally propels to 25.64 lakh; Mumbai clocks over 5000 cases in a day

Maharashtra surpassed its previous highest one-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, March 24, with 31,855 more persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus. This has propelled the state's COVID-19 tally to 25,64,881. At present, there are 2,47,299 active cases in the state. With 15,098 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 22,62,593. With Mumbai recording 5185 cases in the day, it remains a major novel coronavirus hotspot in the state. 

95 deaths — 29 from Nagpur, 9 from Nashik, 6 from Mumbai, 5 each from Amravati, Aurangabad, Nanded and Kalyan Dombivali, 4 from Pune, three each from Pimpri Chinchwad and Wardha, two each from Bhandara, Akola, Nandurbar and Satara and one each from Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira Bhayandar, Panvel, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Sangli, Sindhudurg, Latur, Beed, Yavatmal, Washim and Gondia were reported on Wednesday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 55 occurred in the last 48 hours, 25 in the last week and the rest from the period before. Until now, a total of 53,684 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 1,87,25,307 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 12,68,094 persons are under home quarantine, 13,499 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 13.70 per cent, 88.21 per cent and 2.09 per cent respectively.

Novel coronavirus 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 44,91,035 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra so far, 6,69,118 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.