Mumbai: In a piece of good news, Maharashtra's COVID-19 cases decreased sharply on Monday to plummet below the 30,000 mark first time in nearly two months. Though the cases gone down but the state death tally jumped past the 82,000 mark, according to the health officials.

Compared with 974 fatalities on Sunday, deaths plummeted to 516, taking the tally to 82,486 now. Dipping below the 30,000 mark the first time since March 23 - when 28,699 cases were reported, the daily cases went down from 34,389 on Sunday to 26,616 now, taking the state total above the 54 lakh mark to 54,05,068.

The situation in Mumbai continued to improve, with cases remaining below the 3,000 mark, at 1,232, while the city total increased to 6,89,062. Also, number of fatalities were dropped to 48 on Monday, taking the total deaths in India’s financial capital to 14,272 now. After four days, the state death rate climbed from 1.52 per cent to 1.53 per cent now, while the number of active cases depleted to 4,45,495 now.

On the brighter side, a total of 48,211 fully cured patients - again higher than the number of fresh cases -- returned home, taking the tally to 48,74,582, while the recovery rate further improved from 89.74 per cent to 90.19 per cent. The Mumbai circle - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts - reported a corresponding fall in new cases to 4,007 now, taking its total to 14,87,830, while with 118 more fatalities, the toll reached 26,024.

The drop in the new cases and fatalities can be accredited to the reduce in the testing rate. Merely 17,640 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, in contrast to 24,896 tests conducted on Sunday. The decrease in testing could also be because of the severe cyclonic storm Tauktae that killed several in Maharashtra.

SECOND WAVE CONTROLLED?

The Shiv Sena, one of the ruling parties in MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government in Maharashtra has claimed that the government has controlled the second wave of COVID-19 in the state. The Sena said that they will now also find a way out of the crisis caused by cyclone Tauktae, which hit coastal parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai.

According to PTI, Shiv Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, "Crises are not new to Maharashtra and the state, which routs these crises, is not new to the world." "Maharashtra controlled the first and second waves of COVID-19. Defeated Nisarga (cyclone last year). Now, Maharashtra will successfully find a way out of the Tauktae cyclone crisis too," the editorial said as per PTI.

Maharashtra is the worst-hit state by novel contagion, with nearly 4.5 lakh active cases as of Tuesday. It has registered over 82,000 deaths amid pandemic.