Maharashtra reports three Covid-19 deaths, 450 new cases in 24 hours

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Maharashtra on Tuesday reported three coronavirus related deaths in the past 24 hours, a communique issued by the state's Public Health department said. The state has also recorded 450 new covid positive cases.

As on today, the state has 2,343 active covid-19 positive cases.

The release said that out of 8,65,96,047 laboratory samples 81,42,509 have been tested positive (09.40%) for Covid-19 until today since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

It further said that in view of the international scenario of Covid-19, screening of international passengers arriving at Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur airports have been started from December 2022. "All passengers are being thermally scanned & 2 percent random samples are taken for Covid testing. All positive samples are referred for WGS."

Meanwhile, the Central government has reviewed the public health preparedness for the management of Covid-19 and vaccination progress, and exhorted states to strengthen surveillance with a focus on whole genome sequencing of positive samples.

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In the wake of the rising Covid cases in several parts of the country, the Centre also directed the states to increase testing with higher proportion of RT-PCR tests.

States have also been advised to undertake mock drills to ensure the operational readiness of hospital infrastructure including Oxygen cylinders, PSA plants, ventilators and human resources.