06 March,2021 06:21 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
A nurse administers a shot to a senior citizen at Nair hospital on Friday. Pic/Ashish Raje
The number of fresh Coronavirus infections in Maharashtra crossed 10,000 in 24 hours preceding Friday evening, said officials amid a worrying trend of cases heading north over the past few weeks.
Mumbai reported 1,174 people testing positive for the contagious virus despite a drop in the average number of tests. The test positivity rate, which refers to the number of positive cases from 100 samples, has doubled to 6.2 percent compared to the first week of February.
Government data showed that 19,082 tests were carried out across Mumbai in the 24-hour window. While the average number of tests during last week had remained around 21,000, the test positivity rate was 4 percent.
COVID-19 claimed 53 lives in a single day across the state. The death toll for the city was 3, an indicator of some level of control over the pandemic. Of those who succumbed to the respiratory disease in Mumbai, all were above 60 years of age and two had comorbidities.
Officials said 1,151 patients recovered and discharged from hospitals in the city and the recovery rate has stabilised at 93 percent. There are 10,469 active patients in Mumbai.
The larger area of Mumbai Metropolitan Region reported 2,135 cases, including 211 from Thane, 140 from Navi Mumbai and 213 Kalyan-Dombivli. Officials said cases are also rising in the satellite cities. Apart from Mumbai, the other areas of MMR reported 8 deaths, while Nashik and Akola circles saw nine fatalities each.
Of the 10,216 fresh COVID cases in Maharashtra, Akola circle reported 1,472 infections and Pune and Nagpur circles added 2,070 and 1,974 new patients respectively. The cumulative count of the cases in the state is close to 22 lakh and the recovery rate of the state has slipped below 93 percent after a month. The number of active patients in all the districts now stand at nearly 88,000, which had climbed down to 30,000 in the first week of February.
At least 10 employees of Radha Krishna restaurant on S V Road, Andheri, were found positive two days ago. Civic officials said the staffers have been shifted to the BKC Jumbo COVID Centre for treatment and the eatery had remained shut for sanitisation. On Friday, the restaurant resumed operations. Two weeks ago, 21 staffers of Hotel Express Inn, a popular joint at Mira-Bhayandar, had tested positive for COVID-19.
