First time since March 30, Mumbai’s COVID-19 deaths were dropped to single-digit on Tuesday. In a major sigh of relief, Mumbai recorded nine deaths - for the first time since March 31, when seven deaths were reported.

Also, the city’s new cases remained below the 1,000-mark as it added 724 new cases to take its total to 284,191. Of the total eight Circles, Mumbai circle (MMR, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) reported 15 new deaths - pushing up the total to 18,537 - while a surge of 1,356 new infections took its tally to 6,34,016.

Meanwhile, BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation)post-Diwali has strengthened targeted COVID-19 testing to check if there’s an increase in the cases after the festivities. Sections of, hawkers, shopkeepers, BEST drivers and restaurant staff are being tested for the novel virus.

On the other side, Maharashtra's fatalities and active cases scenario remained worrying on Tuesday though new infections reported a drop, health authorities informed.

The state witnessed 95 fatalities - compared to the peak total of 515 reported on September 15 - as the state's total deaths gone up to 47,246. The new cases drifted just below the 5,000-mark with 4,930 new cases, taking stat’s total to 18,28,826.

As many as 17 of the 36 districts around Maharashtra reported fatalities on Tuesday though all reported new infections, with the bulk of fatalities from getting reported from the Mumbai-Pune regions. On the positive front, Maharashtra’s recovery rate improved from 92.39 per cent to 98.49 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 2.58 per cent.