Covid: At 1,201, Maharashtra sees highest fresh daily tally since November 17

Maharashtra on Wednesday registered a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases with 1,201 new infections being recorded in the last 24 hours.

With this, the state’s tally crossed the 1,000-mark for the first time since November 17. The government’s updated health bulletin said the test positivity rate is at 0.98 per cent with 1,23,261 samples tested during the period. The last time Maharashtra touched 1 per cent positivity rate was on November 9.

Its capital Mumbai also reported 490 new coronavirus positive cases, a jump of more than 160 from the previous day, but did not record any fatality from the infection.

The state is also one of the top contributors in the country’s tally of Omicron cases, the highly transmissible variant of the Covid-19. According to last available figures, Maharashtra has detected at least 65 cases of the B.1.1.529 variant, 11 of which were confirmed on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the state registered eight more deaths taking the fatality tally to 1,41,375. As many as 953 people recovered from the disease pushing the tally to 64,99,760.