Mumbai, Jan 16 (IANS): Maharashtra experienced a slight lull in new Covid-19 and Omicron cases on Saturday though deaths again increased, health officials said here.

After a record high of 46,723 (January 12), the number of daily Covid infectees fell for the second day, from 43,211 on Friday to 42,462 on Saturday.

However, the fatalities increased from 19 a day earlier to 23 on Saturday, and the mortality rate fell from 1.98 per cent to 1.97 per cent.

After notching a peak of 238 Omicron cases on January 14 the state infections of the variant went down to 125 for the day, sparking concerns among the health authorities.

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

A total of 281,459 travellers have landed here, including 43,106 from the "high risk" countries from where 531 have tested positive and another 604 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron.

Another staggering 4,792 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing with the results of 71 are awaited, the officials said.

Omicron has spread extensively across several districts in the state, and out of the 1,730 cases till date, 879 have recovered.

Pune district led the state with 693 cases of the variant, followed by 653 in Mumbai, 100 in Thane, 90 in Nagpur, 59 in Sangli, 19 in Kolhapur. 18 each in Raigad and Amravati, 14 in Satara, 11 each in Osmanabad and Akola, 6 each in Palghar and Buldhana, 5 in Aurangabad, 4 in Ahmednagar, 3 each in Nanded, Nashik, Jalna, Gondiya and Latur, 2 each in Solapur, Gadchiroli and Nandurbar, and 1 each in Jalna and Wardha.

Of the 42,462 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone accounted for 20,924 infections, while Mumbai city remained at a high, with 10,661 fresh cases.

The next is Pune Circle's 11,519 infectees, Nashik Circle 2,917, Nagpur Circle 3,021, Kolhapur Circle 1,388, Latur Circle 1,093, Aurangabad Circle 867 and Akola Circle's 733.

The number of people sent to home quarantine shot up hugely - from 19,10,361 on Friday to 22,00,108 now, and another 6,102 have been shunted to institutional quarantine.

Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Raigad and Palghar remain at the top with the highest number of 'active cases' currently in the state, with the afflictions shooting up from 261,658 a day before to 264,441 on Saturday, with the recovery rate remaining steady at 94.28 per cent.

The state's cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 71,70,483 cases and 141,779 deaths, while a total of 67,60,514 patients have fully recovered till date.