On Sunday, March 21, Mumbai recorded 3,775 people testing positive for the coronavirus taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 3.62 lakhs.
This happens to be the highest single-day spike since the outbreak of the coronavirus last year and the second consecutive day with over 3,000 cases. Moreover, out of the total number of COVID-19 cases, 23,448 are active. In the past 24 hours, the number of active cases has risen by 2,113. In the first 21 days of March, the daily caseload in the city has increased by 2.41 times.
In view of the spike in cases of coronavirus, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal directed ward officers to double the daily number of tests for the coronavirus from 25,000 to 50,000 in the next couple of days and vaccinate at least one lakh of beneficiaries per day, up from the current coverage of 40,000. Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, 24,220 COVID-19 tests were recorded.
On the other hand, in Maharashtra, with 30,535 persons testing positive in the last 24 hours, the state's COVID-19 tally rose to 24,79,682. At present, there are 2,10,120 active cases in the state. With 11,314 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number recovered soared to 22,14,867.
So far, 1,83,56,200 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 9,69,867 persons are under home quarantine, 9,601 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. In addition, the COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 13.51 per cent, 89.32 per cent and 2.15 per cent respectively.