Coronavirus Update: Maharashtra sees 993 new cases, 5 deaths; XBB.1.16 variant driving surge

Coronavirus

Maharashtra on Friday reported 993 COVID-19 cases and five deaths, which took the tally to 81,60,499 and the toll to 1,48,497, a health official said.

A state health department bulletin said the XBB.1.16 is the dominant variant of Omicron that was driving the case surge in the state. So far, 681 cases caused by this variant have been detected, and five persons have succumbed.

The addition to the tally was lower than the 1,113 recorded on Thursday, which also saw three fatalities, he pointed out.

Mumbai and Pune recorded two deaths each while the fifth fatality was in Nagpur, he said.

Mumbai accounted for 226 of the new cases in the state, the official added.

The recovery count increased by 1,147 in the last 24 hours to touch 80,06,032, leaving the state with 5,970 active cases, the official said.

So far, 8,68,69,019 coronavirus tests have been conducted in the state, including 18,118 in the last 24 hours.

The case fatality rate is 1.81 per cent and the recovery rate stands at 98.11 per cent.

Since January 1 this year, 80 persons have succumbed to the infection, with 81 per cent having comorbidities, as per state health department data.

On April 20, the state had 6,129 active cases, comprising 5,834 (95.2 per cent) in home isolation and the rest 295 (4.8 per cent) in hospitals.

Of the 295 hospitalised, 57 were in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) while the remaining 238 were in normal wards.

Of the 18,118 coronavirus tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 14,877 were carried out in government labs, 2,949 in private labs and 292 through self-testing kits, the official said.