In a grim milestone, Maharashtra on Saturday reported its highest-ever single-day spike in COVID-19 cases at 20,489, taking the total count of infections to 8,83,862, showed the state health department data.
With 312 deaths due to the highly contagious virus in the last 24 hours, the total number of fatalities rose to 26,276 in the state, it said.
This is the fourth consecutive day that Maharashtra reported a record number of fresh Coronavirus cases.
Before this, the state had reported the highest single-day spike of 19,218 cases on Friday.
Mumbai reported 1,737 new cases and 33 fatalities, taking its tally to 1,53,712 and the death count to 7,832.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, speaking on the spike in COVID-19 cases in Mumbai in the last two days, said that the situation shows the state administration will face the challenge of containing the outbreak more vigorously in the next two to three months.
A total of 10,801 people were discharged on Saturday, taking the number of recoveries to 6,36,574, the government release said. The recovery rate in the state stood at 72.01 per cent.
The state currently has 2,20,661 active cases of Coronavirus.
Meanwhile, three of the four worst affected states by the COVID-19 pandemic - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka - have been instructed by the Centre to take aggressive measures to control the spread of the infectious virus.
The Union Health Ministry, on Saturday, directed the three states to keep their mortality rates below one per cent.
The fatality rate in Maharashtra dropped below 3 per cent for the first time on Saturday.
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