With 3940 new cases, Maharashtra's total caseload of coronavirus patients has increased to over 18 lakhs. According to the state's public health department, 3111 patients were discharged taking the number of total recoveries to over 17 lakh.<br />'' Our Mumbai correspondent reports that <br />''<br />'' <span style="font-weight: bold;"><i><u>Maharashtra is seeing a steady decline in Covid 19 cases allaying the fear of a second round of outbreak of the disease post Diwali. On the first week of December, the number of fresh cases coming in a day was in the range of </u></i></span><a href="tel:5500-4500" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: blue;">5500-4500</span></i></b></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><i><u>, while on the second week it came down to </u></i></span><a href="tel:4000-5000" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: blue;">4000-5000</span></i></b></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><i><u>; and in the beginning of third week of this month, it has further come down to around </u></i></span><a href="tel:3000-4000" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: blue;">3000-4000</span></i></b></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><i><u> cases in a day. Among the densely populated areas of the state, Mumbai has shown a significant improvement with around 8000 active cases presently, while neighboring Thane district surpassing it with more than 10500 cases. Pune is still the major contributor in the state with more than 17000 active cases at present. The state has so far conducted nearly 1 Cr 21 lakh tests out of which more than 62,000 were in past 24 hours. The positivity rate, which is calculated on the basis of number of positive cases corresponding to the tests done so far, stands nearly at 16 percent.</u></i></span>