Maharashtra records 81% rise in daily Covid-19 cases

Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 1,881 new coronavirus cases, 81 per cent more than the previous day and highest since February 18, and also reported one case of B.A.5 variant, the state health department said.

State capital Mumbai alone accounted for 1,242 new cases, almost double the Monday's count.

No new pandemic-related death was reported during the day.

On Monday, the state had recorded 1,036 infections while Mumbai had reported 676 cases. It may be noted that generally fewer cases are recorded on Mondays as fewer tests are carried out during weekends.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra's COVID-19 case tally rose to 78,96,114, while the death toll remained unchanged at 1,47,866.

Tuesday's daily rise in cases was highest since February 18 when the state had recorded 2,086 new cases.

As per the latest report of whole genomic sequencing' from BJ Medical College, Pune, a 31-year-old woman from Pune was found positive for B.A.5 variant, the official release said.

"The woman was asymptomatic and recovered in home isolation," the release added.

On May 28, for the first time in Maharashtra four patients of B.A.4 sub-lineage and three cases of B.A.5 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant of coronavirus were found.

The daily infection rise in Mumbai at 1,242 was the highest since January 29 when the financial capital of India had reported 1,411 new cases.

Mumbai has been driving the state's coronavirus figures in the last few days.

There are 8,432 active cases in Maharashtra now.

The districts of Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalna, Akola, Buldhana and Gondia have no active cases as of Tuesday.

As many as 878 patients recovered since previous evening, taking the tally of recovered patients in the state to 77,39,816. The recovery rate in the state is 98.02 per cent.

As many as 35,694 tests were conducted since previous evening, which raised the tally of coronavirus tests conducted so far to 8,11,12,952.