COVID-19 cases fall to 2,438 in state, Mumbai sees 438 new patients

Swab sample of a passenger is taken at Dadar station on Monday. Pic/Ashish Raje

The state recorded on Monday fewer coronavirus patients and deaths than earlier weeks. In the 24 hours up to the evening, Maharashtra saw 2,438 fresh infections and 40 deaths.

In Mumbai, the new cases dropped to 438, while the COVID-19 claimed 9 lives in the 24-hour window.

However, the slide in new cases appears to be because of a drop in tests - to less than 10,000 from the average 13,000.

While Mumbai had been reporting less than four deaths a day in the first week of January, civic officials said the pandemic is in control in the city as fatalities are still in single digits.

Of the 9 Mumbai deaths reported on Monday, eight had comorbidities. One patient was below 40 years, two were between 40 to 60 years and six patients were above 60 years of age. Meanwhile, 239 people recovered from the infection in the city. Active cases in Mumbai now stand at 7,364.

Of the 2,438 new COVID cases, 826 were reported in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Other than the city, the Thane Municipal Corporation reported a three-digit figure (114). It also saw three deaths.

The number of new cases in Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivali dropped drastically, while cases in few other parts of the state declined marginally, with the Pune and Nagpur circles reporting 432 and 415 cases respectively.

The cumulative number of cases in Maharashtra stands at 19.71 lakh and the recovery rate of the state is 94.8 per cent. On Monday, 4,286 patients recovered from the contagious disease. At present, there are about 52,000 active patients in the state.