Maharashtra on Saturday reported 854 fresh coronavirus positive cases, including eight patients of the Omicron variant, the health department said.The latest additions pushed the tally of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra to 66,48,694 while 11 more patients succumbed to the viral infection, the health department said. The overall death toll increased to 1,41,340, it said.

With eight more cases of the Omicron variant being detected, their tally in Maharashtra rose so far to 48 on Saturday.Of these eight Omicron cases, four were detected at the Mumbai airport while three are from Satara and one from Pune, the department added. Of these 48 cases, 28 patients of the Omicron variant were discharged after their RT-PCR test reports came negative, it said.

Altogether, 804 patients were discharged during the day, raising the number of recoveries so far in Maharashtra to 64,96,733, leaving the state with 6,942 active cases, the department said.Maharashtra’s COVID-19 recovery rate is 97.71 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent.As per the report given by the National Institute of Virology on Saturday, eight more patients were found to be infected with the Omicron variant in Maharashtra.

Of them, one is from Pune city and three from Satara, who are from the same family with travel history to East Africa, the department said. The case from Pune had come into contact with a person having international travel history.Of the four Omicron patients detected at the Mumbai airport, one is from Mumbai while the rest three are from Chhattisgarh, and Kerala, and Jalgaon district in Maharashtra.Two of the four had travelled to Africa, one to Tanzania and another to England.

All four are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, a health official said.The fresh Omicron patient from Pune city is a 17-year-old girl who contracted the infection after coming in contact with an international traveller.Of these eight patients, seven are fully vaccinated. The close contacts of these patients are being tracked, the department added.Of the 48 Omicron patients detected in Maharashtra so far, 28 have been discharged after a negative RT-PCR test.

The highest number of Omicron cases are from Mumbai (18) followed by Pimpri Chinchwad (10), Pune city (3), Pune rural (6), Satara (3), two each from Kalyan Dombivli and Osmanabad and one each from Latur, Buldhana, Nagpur and Vasai-Virar, the report said.A total of 1,29,133 coronavirus tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the number of examinations in Maharashtra so far to 6,75,70,939, the department said.Currently, 80,039 people are in home quarantine and 886 others in institutional quarantine, it said.Mumbai reported 274 new COVID-19 cases and no fatality, the bulletin said.

The Mumbai division, which comprises the city and its satellite townships, saw 447 cases and six fatalities in the last 24 hours.The Pune division reported 236 cases, Nashik (95), Kolhapur (26), Latur (21), Aurangabad (20), Nagpur (5) and Akola (4). No fatalities were reported in divisions like Nagpur, Akola, Latur, Aurangabad and Kolhapur.Coronavirus figures of Maharashtra are as follows: Positive cases 66,48,694, new cases 854, death toll 1,41,340, recoveries 64,96,733, active cases 6,942, total tests 6,75,70,939.