Maharashtra Corona News: Mumbai is currently witnessing a dip in daily Covid-19 caseload. On the other hand, Omicron, the new variant of Corona in the third wave, continues to be a matter of concern. However, Maharashtra health officials have said that the state is still recording the highest number of cases of Delta variant.
A senior official of the health department said the genome sequencing of patient's samples revealed that people are mostly infected with the Delta variant.
In a letter to his colleagues on Wednesday, Dr. Pradeep Vyas, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Health said that more than 4,200 samples were tested, of which 68 per cent were found to be infected with Delta variant while 32 per cent were found to be infected with Omicron.
Significantly, the second wave in the country last year was caused by the Delta variant and it resulted in a great devastation during that time.
The Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa in November 2021 and it began spreading in India from the first week of December.
Maharashtra had a confirmed number of 1,605 cases of Omicron till Friday night, while 71,24,278 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the state so far.
Dr Vyas wrote in the letter, "Samples of 4,265 patients have been sent for genome sequencing since November 1 last year. Out of these, report of 4,201 samples has been issued. This shows that 1,367 samples or 32 per cent showed Omicron variant, while the remaining 68 per cent had Delta variant.''
Corona cases in the state
In Maharashtra, 43,211 new Corona cases were reported on Friday while 33,356 recovered and 19 scummed from the virus. Active cases in the state are 2,61,658.
Meanwhile, 238 cases of Omicron infection were reported in the state till Friday. A total of 1,605 Omicron cases have been reported in Maharashtra till now.