Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS): After nearly two weeks of rising, Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra suddenly plummeted by 10,000, and Omicron cases also dropped below 50, on the day when the state implemented night curfew, health officials said here on Monday.

After a stupendous 44,388 Covid infectees on Sunday, the state recorded 33,470 and fatalities also dropped from 12 to 8 on Monday, with the mortality rate falling from 2.04 per cent to 2.03 per cent.

From a height of 207 Omicron cases on Sunday, the state infections of the variant also came down steeply to 31 - all from Pune district, but Mumbai remained at the top position with a tally of 606.

Omicron has spread extensively across several districts in the state, and out of the 1,247 cases till date, 467 have recovered.

Mumbai accounts for the bulk of Omicron cases, at 606, followed by 354 in Pune, 76 in Thane, 59 in Sangli, 51 in Nagpur, 18 each in Raigad and Kolhapur, 11 in Osmanabad, ten in Satara, nine in Amravati, six each in Palghar and Buldhana, five in Akola, three each in Nanded, Aurangabad, and Gondiya, two each in Ahmednagar, Gadchiroli, Latur and Nandurbar, and one in Jalna.

The health authorities are continuing the intensive surveillance of passengers arriving at the three international airports - Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur - since December 1.

A total of 38,450 travellers have landed here from the "high risk" countries of which 449 have tested positive and 493 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron.

Besides, another whopping 3,868 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing with the results of 97 awaited, the officials said.