Pune: With 411 active COVID-19 infections, district tops the tally in Maharashtra

With the concerns over H3N2 cases in city, with 411 active COVID-19 infections, district tops the tally in Maharashtra.

With this, the state now has 1,364 active cases, of which Pune accounts for the highest 411 infections, followed by 296 and 244 in Mumbai and Thane districts respectively.

Maharashtra on Monday recorded 128 new cases of coronavirus that took the tally of infections to 81,39,865, an official from the state health department said.

The toll remained unchanged at 1,48,428, while the count of recoveries reached 79,90,073 after 72 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, the official said.

The daily count of infections has dropped by more than a 100, as the state had reported 238 cases on Sunday.

With 2,498 swab samples tested in the last 24 hours, the total number of tests conducted across the state rose to 8,65,49,217.

As per the health department report, Mumbai circle logged the highest 78 new cases, followed by 37 in Pune, seven in Nashik, two cases each from Latur and Aurangabad, and one case each in Kolhapur and Nagpur.

'XBB' Covid variants unlikely to cause new wave

The fresh spike in Covid cases is not an indication of a new wave, and there is no need to panic, health experts said on Monday.

"There is no indication of any surge by XBB lineages as it is causing no severe disease. Covid has already been like a flu for more than a year. After the second wave, we never had a wave which is more severe than a flu," said Banerjee, who is also Professor and Head of Community Medicines, D.Y. Patil Medical College, Pune.

"We just keep counting and raising the panic levels. We need to stop merely counting the cases and see if there is any increase in hospital admission or deaths. We are just chasing the common cold virus," he added.