Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally has increased to 4,50,196 with the addition of 8,968 fresh cases, while more than 260 patients succumbed to the infection. State Health Department said, with 266 fresh deaths, the fatality count increased to 15,842 and 10,221 patients discharged, taking the count of recovered cases to 2,87,030. Maharashtra now has 1,47,018 active cases. A total of 22,98,723 people have been tested so far for COVID-19.

Due to the improved recovery rate, many people are coming forward for COVID tests keeping the fear aside and taking the timely treatment. At the same time, there are incidences of overcharging the COVID patients by some private hospitals and the Maharashtra Government is trying to curb the malpractice by capping the rates of hospitalization and increasing the testing capacity of the labs.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asserted that there is a need for a permanently dedicated hospital in the state for infectious diseases. He was speaking at the commissioning ceremony of a 371-bed COVID facility in Mira Bhayander in Thane district yesterday. He also inaugurated a 200-bed capacity COVID Care Centre in Mahad and assured that it would be useful in the fight against COVID-19.

In a major relaxation in the lockdown norms, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai - MCGM said all shops in the city are allowed to remain open all days from tomorrow. Malls and market places will be allowed to work from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. However, theatres, food courts/restaurants will continue to remain shut.

Meanwhile, in a landmark achievement, India has tested over two crore COVID-19 samples so far. More than two crores eight lakh 64 thousand tests have been conducted in the country till now. The remarkable feat has been achieved by the State and Union Territories under the guidance of the Centre for management of COVID-19.

The objectives of testing aggressively, tracking efficiently and isolating and treating promptly are rigourously followed by States and Union Territories in terms of the guidance given by the Health Ministry. Effective implementation of this approach has led to ramping up the testing capacity across the country and facilitated widespread COVID testing of people.

With 6,61,892 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the number of Tests Per Million in the country has increased to over 14850. COVID testing in the country has demonstrated a steady upward trend indicating the growing testing network. In another positive development, around 24 States and Union Territories have reported higher testing per million than the national average.

AIR correspondent reports that starting from less than 100 tests per day, a multiple fold increase in a few months was made possible by dedicated teams of research institutions, medical colleges, testing laboratories, Ministries, airlines and postal services. The government has created robust health infrastructure for effective management of COVID-19 pandemic within a short span.

In January this year, there was only one testing laboratory for COVID-19 in India. Now, 1356 labs are engaged in testing the COVID samples across the country. Out of the total 917 are government labs while 439 and private laboratories.