Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS): Maharashtra notched a significant drop in Covid-19 cases but Omicron infections again shot above the 100-mark and deaths remained in double-digits, health officials said here on Monday.

After a record high of 46,723 on January 12, the number of daily Covid infectees fell for the fourth day, from 41,327 on Sunday to 31,111 on Monday.

However, the fatalities increased from 29 a day earlier to 24.

After notching a peak of 238 Omicron cases on January 14, the state infections of the variant went down to 122 for the day, but a huge spike compared with 8 on Sunday.

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 289,893 travellers have landed here, including 44,494 from the "high risk" countries from where 548 have tested positive and another 639 from other countries, with all their reports sent for genomic sequencing to confirm if they are afflicted by Omicron.

Another staggering 4,986 positive samples from field surveys conducted since November 1 have been sent for genomic sequencing with the results of 67 are awaited, the officials said.

Omicron has spread extensively across several districts in the state, and out of the 1,860 cases till date, 959 have recovered.

Pune district led the state with 742 cases of the variant, followed by 656 in Mumbai, 130 in Thane, 116 in Nagpur, 59 in Sangli, 25 in Amravati, 19 each in Kolhapur and Aurangabad, 18 in Raigad, 14 in Satara, 11 each in Osmanabad and Akola, six each in Palghar and Buldhana, four in Ahmednagar, three each in Nanded, Latur, Nashik, Jalna, and Gondiya, two each in Solapur, Gadchiroli, and Nandurbar, and one each in Jalna, Bhandara, and Wardha.

Of the 31,111 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, Mumbai Metropolitan Region showed a sharp drop from 17,384 a day earlier to 12,885, while Mumbai city came down from 7,895 to 5,956.

The next is Pune circle's 8,707 infectees, Nashik circle's 3,136, Nagpur circle's 2,857, Kolhapur circle's 1,177, Latur circle' 1,049, Aurangabad circle's 709 and Akola circle's 591.

The number of people sent to home quarantine shot up hugely - from 21,98,414 on Sunday to 22,64,217 now, and another 2,994 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 265,346 a day before to 267,334, with the recovery rate remaining steady at 94.03 percent.

The state's cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 72,42,921 cases and 141,832 deaths, while a total of 68,29,992 patients have fully recovered till date.