Maharashtra reports over 8,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, taking total infections past 21 lakh

Mumbai: Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed a significant rise in coronavirus cases, with more than 8,000 new infections coming to light in a single day after a gap of over four months, health officials said. The state reported 8,807 cases on Wednesday, taking its total infection count to 21,21,119. It had reported 8,142 cases on October 21 last year, after which the numbers had declined. With 80 deaths reported on Wednesday, the state’s fatality count rose to 51,937, the government said. Of 80 deaths, 27 were reported during the past 48 hours, while 22 were from the last week. The remaining 31 deaths were from the period before the last week. Since 10 February, the graph of new cases began to climb again. The state had recorded 6,112 infections on 19 February, 6,281 on 20 February and 6,971 on 21 February. On 22 and 23 February, the state had reported 5,210 and 6,218 cases. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) recorded the highest 2,018 new cases among divisional circles in the state on Wednesday. Nashik, Pune, Akola and Nagpur divisional circles reported over 1,000 new cases each during the day. The number of patients discharged from hospitals in 24 hours dipped to 2,772 on Wednesday from 5,869 on Tuesday. The total recoveries till now stand at 20,08,623. Mumbai city continued to report the highest single- daycasesin the state with a spike of 1,167 on Wednesday. Nagpur district (barring Nagpur city) and Amravati city in Vidarbha saw a daily jump of 818 and 627 cases. Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cities in Western Maharashtra reported a rise of 755 and 408 cases respectively. Aurangabad city in Marathwada region reported 203 new cases, while in Yavatmal district and Akola Municipal Corporation, 179 and 150 fresh infections were recorded. The total of cases reported in the MMR - which includes Mumbai city and Thane - till now has increased to 7,18,317. The region has reported 19,789 deaths till now. The Pune circle - which covers Solapur and Satara districts, besides Pune - reported a rise of 1,811 cases. In the Akola circle - comprising Amravati, Yavatmal, Buldhana and Washim districts, besides Akola - in Vidarbha 1,679 new infections were reported. The recovery rate in the state is 94.70 percent, while the fatality rate is 2.45 percent, the health department said. Currently, 2,95,578 people are in home quarantine and 2,446 in institutional quarantine in the state. The number of active cases in the state increased to 59,358 on Wednesday from 53,409 a day earlier. With 80,861 new tests on Wednesday, the number of samples tested so far increased to 1,59,41,773.