Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally swells with 4787 new cases; positivity rate at 13.43%

Maharashtra saw a huge rise in the daily COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, February 17, with 4787 more persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus. This has propelled the state's COVID-19 tally to 20,76,093. With a major spurt in cases, Mumbai continues to be a major novel coronavirus hotspot with 721 patients recorded in the day. At present, there are 38,013 active cases in the state. With 3853 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 19,85,261. 

40 deaths — 7 from Amravati, 5 each from Ratnagiri and Kalyan Dombivali, three from Mumbai, Nashik and Pune, two from Nagpur and Panvel and one each from Thane, Palghar, Pimpri Chinchwad, Solapur, Sangli, Sindhudurg, Latur, Beed, Yavatmal and Buldhana were reported on Wednesday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 13 occurred in the last 48 hours, 15 in the last week and the rest from the period before. Until now, a total of 51,631 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, over 1.53 crore samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 1,95,704 persons are under home quarantine, 1664 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 13.43%, 95.62% and 2.49% respectively. 

Read: No COVID-19 Deaths In Last 24 Hours In 18 States, UTs: Health Ministry

Read: Maharashtra: Nagpur Records 596 New COVID-19 Cases; Five More Deaths

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%. 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. In the state, this drive is being conducted on 5 days every week- Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With 7,62,749 healthcare and frontline workers getting vaccinated in Maharashtra so far, the total number of inoculations in India has reached 91,86,757. 

Read: Stop Vaccine Nationalism, Encourage Internationalism: India At UNSC Meeting On COVID-19