Maharashtra reports 5 Delta plus deaths, 6,686 new Covid cases

Maharashtra is facing dual challege- rise in Covid cases and marginal increase in Delta+ patients. According to information Five people, including one from Mumbai, have died and as many as 66 people have been found infected with the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19 in Maharashtra so far. Some of them are fully vaccinated, the state health department said on Friday.A 63-year-old fully vaccinated woman from Mumbai died because of the infection in the last week of July, the first death due to the Delta Plus variant in Mumbai, a civic official said. Following the woman's death in Mumbai, at least two of her close contacts were also found infected with the Delta Plus variant, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official.

Among the five deaths linked to the Delta Plus variant, two patients were from Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district and one each from Raigad, Beed and Mumbai, the health department said. The maximum number of Delta Plus patients - 13 - belong to Jalgaon,followed by Ratnagiri at 12 and Mumbai at 11, the health department said. Six patients each were from Thane and Pune districts, three each from Palghar and district, two each from Nanded and Gondia, one each from Chandrapur, Akola, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Nandurbar, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Beed, according to the health department. 80 per cent of the samples sent for genome sequencing had tested positive for the Delta plus variant of coronavirus. Of the 66 Delta Plus patients, 33 were in the 19 to 45 age group, 18 in the 46 to 60 age group, eight were aged over 60 age and seven were under 18, it said. According to the statement, among the total patients 34 are women. Among the 66 patients, 10 had taken both doses of vaccines. Eight others had taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Two of these 18 people had taken Covaxin and 16 Covishield, the statement said.

Meanwhile , Maharashtra reported 6,686 new coronavirus infections and 158 fatalities on Friday, taking the tally of cases to 63,82,076 and death toll to 1,34,730, a health department official said. There are 3,70,890 people in home quarantine and 2,676 in institutional quarantine. The number of active patients stands at 63,004. Maharashtra's case recovery rate is 96.85 per cent while the fatality rate is 2.11 per cent. Dhule, Nandurbar, Bhandara, Gondia and Chandrapur districts along with Malegaon, Chandrapur, Amravati, Parbhani and Bhiwandi-Nizampur municipal corporations did not report any new coronavirus infections during the day. Satara district reported the highest 1,020 new infections, followed by Ahmednagar with 1,019 infections.