For the second consecutive day the state and the city reported a significant dip in Covid-19 deaths on Monday. The state reported 29 covid-19 fatalities, which is lowest in the last three months, increasing the total death toll to 49,695. Similarly, Mumbai reported three deaths for the second day, pushing the total count to 11,138 so far.
Meanwhile, the state and city reported a slight drop in the daily cases on Monday, with 2,765 and 516 new infections in the last 24 hours respectively, pushing its tally to 19,47,011 and 2,94,985 till now.
State government officials said the streamlining of the treatment protocol and early detection had led to the decline in fatalities. "The number of critical cases too has gone down and so patient management has become more effective," an official said.
Meanwhile, eight passengers who returned from the United Kingdom (UK) in Maharashtra have tested positive for the new mutated strain of COVID-19. “4,836 UK returnees who had landed between November 15 and December 23 have been traced till date. RT-PCR tests have been conducted on 3,390 of them 72 samples were found positive,” said state surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate.
Meanwhile the state government has put the administration on alert after discovery of a new mutant strain of Covid-19 that is believed to be much more infectious than all previous strains. It has started a special drive to trace and conduct tests of all those that came from the UK between November 15 and December 23. Further, it is sending the samples of those who have tested positive to NIV, Pune to ascertain the type of virus they are infected with.
