Mumbai, Dec 30 (IANS): Maharashtra on Wednesday reported a massive spurt in Covid-19 and Omicron cases, even as the state announced fresh curbs for celebrating New Year and contemplated further restrictions.

Maharashtra on Wednesday notched a whopping 85 new cases of Omicron, taking the state's tally of the latest Covid variant to 252, health officials said here.

Of the fresh cases, Mumbai reported the most at 53, followed by Thane (13), Pune (11), Nagpur (3), Palghar and Raigad (2 each), and Kolhapur and Buldhana (1 each).

Among the infectees, 47 have recent travel history to foreign countries, while 4 were their close contacts, and the rest emerged from community surveillance but had no international travel history.

Intensive surveillance of passengers arriving at the three international airports - at Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur - is currently underway since December 1.

Besides, 879 samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing with results of 176 awaited, the officials said.

The current spread of Omicron is extensive in the state, with a maximum 137 cases in Mumbai, followed by 54 in Pune, 25 in Thane, 7 in Raigad, 6 in Nagpur, 5 each in Satara and Osmanabad, 3 in Palghar, 2 each in Buldhana, Nanded and Aurangabad, 1 each in Akola, Latur, Ahmednagar and Kolhapur.

On the Covid-19 front, the state count suddenly shot up - from 2,172 on Tuesday to 3,900 on Wednesday - although the fatalities dropped from 22 a day before to 20 on Wednesday. The state presently has a mortality rate of 2.12 per cent.

Mumbai, Pune and Thane remain at the top with the highest number of active cases, which shot up from 11,492 a day before to 14,065 on Wednesday, with a recovery rate of 97.61 per cent.