State’s daily Covid cases slip below 40,000-mark

City logs lowest single-day cases of 1,794 since Mar 15

There has been a sudden drop in the number of Covid cases across Maharashtra on Monday, with 37,236 new infections being reported in the last 24 hours, pushing its tally to 51,38,973 cases till now. It is the lowest single-day case reported since March 27 this year. Meanwhile, 549 people succumbed to the SARS-CoV2 virus in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 76,398.

Mumbai also witnessed the lowest single-day cases on Monday since March 15. The city reported 1,794 new infections and 74 covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, increasing the total count to 6,78,269, with 13,891 deaths so far.

Meanwhile, 3,580 Covid patients have recovered on Sunday, taking the total recovery count to 6,16,998 with a recovery rate of 91 per cent till now. The doubling rate of cases in Mumbai has increased to 163 days, while the weekly growth rate has dropped to 0.41per cent.

Officials said that there is a limit on stretching the testing apparatus. Maharashtra is among the states having conducted maximum tests and the positivity rate has also started coming down.

“We have increased daily testing from a maximum of 96,000 per day in the first wave to 290,000 per day in the second wave, which is many times more than what we were doing last year. We have maintained tracing over ten contacts against one positive patient,” said Dr Archana Patil director, Directorate of Health Services.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, state advisor on the Covid-19 and former director-general of health services, said, “There is no doubt that testing is very important, but testing apparatus also has its limitations.”