After a gap of 75 days, Maharashtra on Thursday reported more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases, a sizable number of them coming from Akola and Nagpur divisions, a health department official said. With 5,427 new cases, the caseload in the state rose to 20,81,520 while 38 fatalities took the death toll due to the pandemic to 51,669, he said.

The state had reported 5,229 infections on December 4, which had been followed by a gradual drop in cases. The decline had prompted the state government to relax restrictions on movement and gatherings further, including the restrictions on travel by local trains in Mumbai.

But since the last week, the state is reporting increase in the daily numbers of infections, setting alarm bells ringing. "Of 5,427 new cases, 38 per cent or 2,105 cases were reported from Akola and Nagpur divisions. Akola division alone reported 1,258 cases with Amravati municipal corporation reporting 542 and Amravati district 191," the official said.

Earlier in the day, the administration in Yavatmal district ordered a ten-day lockdown from Thursdaynight, while a weekend lockdown was announcedin Amravati district of the same Vidarbha region from 8 pm onSaturday to 7 am on Monday. Out of 38 deaths reported on Thursday, 17 had occurred in the last 48 hours and 10 in the last week; 11 deaths had taken place even before that, the official said.

As many as 2,543 patients were discharged, increasing the tally of recoveries to 19,87,804. But the number of active patients too went up to 40,858. On February 2 there were 41,586 active cases, but the number had then fallen to as low as 31,000.

It began to increase since the beginning of last week, the official said. Mumbai city reported 736 cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 3,16,487, while four deaths pushed the fatality count to 11,432.

Mumbai division, which also includes surrounding satellite towns, reported 1,432 new cases taking the cumulative tally to 7,08,972, while 11 deaths took the total death figure to 19,735. Akola division's case tally so far is 81,504 and death toll is 1,671. Nagpur division's caseload till now is 2,15,828 and death toll stands at 4,746.

With 65,930 coronavirus tests conducted during the day, the total number of tests conducted rose to 1,55,21,198. Maharashtra's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases: 20,81,520, new cases: 5,427, death toll: 51,669, discharged: 19,87,804, active cases: 40,858, people tested so far: 1,55,21,198