Maharashtra on Saturday reported 9,251 new COVID-19 cases, taking the cumulative count in the state to 3,66,368 while fatalities mounted by 257, including 116 in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), to 13,389, the state Health department said. A record number of 7,227 patients were discharged in the day, taking the count of recovered cases to 2,07,194.

Around 8.85 lakh patients have recovered so far; the recovery rate stood at 63.91 per cent this morning. The positivity rate – percentage of patients who have tested positive for coronavirus – is 11 per cent. Earlier this week, the government had said that it aims to bring down the positivity rate to 5 per cent.

Karnataka on Saturday registered over 5,000 new coronavirus cases for the third day in a row, taking its total past 90,000. Bengaluru alone reported 2,036 new cases taking its overall tally to 43,503.

Delhi has improved its position in the number of active COVID-19 cases and is currently at the eighth spot among states and union territories in the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

In the highest single-day spike till now, Kerala on Saturday reported 1,103 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the infection count to 18,098, while over 1.5 lakh persons are under observation. As many as 9,420 persons are under treatment for coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu have crossed the two lakh-mark with 6,989 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, which is also the biggest single-day spike, government data shows. Eighty-nine have died and 7,758 have recovered in the last 24 hours. The total cases in the state is now 2,06,737.

Gujarat on Saturday logged the highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases with 1,081 new infections, taking the total count to 54,712 while 22 patients died, including 11 in Surat, the state health department said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will launch a plasma donation program on July 27, following the ”Plasma Daan Sankalp Abhiyan” for primary screening of recovered COVID-19 patients in Dharavi area of Mumbai.

India, the third worst-hit country in the global coronavirus tally after US and Brazil, has gradually ramped-up its COVID-19 testing capacity and has conducted over 4.2 lakh tests in a day, the Union Health Ministry said Saturday, crediting the increase to the number of labs for the achievement. 

The pandemic has killed more than 6,33,000 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, with more than 15.5 million people infected, according to news agency AFP.