Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said all cities in the state should set up 'corona vigilance committees',to involve participation of citizens in the fight against COVID-19 and help the local administration in monitoring the ground situation. Addressing commissioners of various municipal bodies in Thane district through video-conferencing, Thackeray said despite repeated directives for setting up jumbo facilities to fight COVID-19 in the district, the local administration did not function as per the expectations.

"The war against COVID-19 cannot be fought by government alone, without the involvement of citizens. During the freedom movement, the determination to achieve independence got a boost due to the involvement of people. Recently, people on their own decided to boycott Chinese goods and sent across a message," he said. "They can keep a watch on other ailments of senior citizens, their oxygen levels, cleanliness in their areas, ailments suffered by people in the neighbourhood, whether mandatory use of mask is being followed," he said.

The Supreme Court Thursday refused to accept Maharashtra government's claim that there was no problem in the state in connection with the migrant workers issue, saying it is its duty to find out the lapses and act on them. "What is happening in Maharashtra? Large number of migrant workers are still in the state," the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah asked the state government.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, said the crux of the affidavit was that the migrants who wanted to leave earlier have now decided to stay back as the state opened up employment opportunities and since May 1, around 3,50,000 workers came back to work in Maharashtra again. Speaking on behalf of the state, he said whoever wanted to shift has been shifted and those who went back may not be getting jobs as per their skills, like a carpenter cannot work as a labourer in an agricultural field.

Migrants at the CSMT in Mumbai waiting to board the special trains.

Around 3,000 antigen testing kits under "Chase the Virus" campaign have been given to Maharashtra's Palghar district for the detection of Covid infectons. An additional 10,000 will be procured to screen suspected patients in the district, PTI quoted collector Dr Kailash Shinde as saying.

Shinde said the administration is doing its best to bring down the mortality rate, which is at 1.3 per cent, while the recovery rate was at 62 per cent. Moreover, an auto RT-PCR machine, with the capacity to test 500 samples a day, has been requisitioned at a lab in Dahanu, he said.

Palghar district has seen 1,542 cases so far, including 19 deaths.

As the number of Covid-19 cases surge outside containment zones, both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Police have intensified action against violations of safety norms, movement restrictions and vehicle capacity rules in the last five days.

Pune City and Pimpri-Chinchwad Police have filed nearly 2,400 and 2,000 cases, respectively, in the last five days. These cases have been filed against people for violating containment zone rules, movement restrictions in non-containment areas, night curfew, vehicle capacity rule, and also for not wearing masks, violation of social distancing norms at public places like shops and other establishments.

Currently, both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad have night curfew between 10 pm and 5 am, in accordance with the state government’s directives. Pune currently has 109 areas demarcated as micro-containment zones, which have far stricter rules than non-containment areas.

With senior citizens being particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, 13.8 per cent of those aged above 60 infected by coronavirus have died in Mumbai, as opposed to the average fatality rate of 5.7 per cent for all age groups. While most doctors, who work as consultants, are practising tele medicine from home, some, despite being senior citizens, are walking into hospitals and clinics every day to treat patients.

The Indian Express spoke to a few of them. Click here to read

Three teenaged friends in Maharashtra's Nagpur district have used their creative skills to raise funds for those at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 and for mentally challenged children and an orphanage here. Soumya Dalimya (17), a Class 12 student, Presha Bhattad (15), a student of Class 10, and Ditya Thapar, who is in Class 8, utilised the lockdown time to make 44 paintings. They have so far raised Rs 84,000 through the sale of their art works. They intend to donate 50 per cent of the amount to the Prime Minister's CARES Fund and the remaining to an orphanage for girls and a centre for mentally deranged children. -- PTI

On seven out of last eight days, the number of people who were declared to have recovered from the novel Coronavirus disease in Delhi has exceeded the number of new infections. On Wednesday, the difference in these two numbers was almost 2,000. There were 3,982 people who were declared recovered, while 2,033 people were found to have been infected.

After reaching a peak on June 23, when 3,947 new infections were detected in Delhi, there has been a steady decline in the number of new cases every day. In fact, on Monday, only 1,379 new cases were discovered in the capital. On the other hand, the people who had been found infected two to three weeks ago, when Delhi was reporting high numbers, have started to recover.

With nearly 25,000 fresh cases, the Covid-19 tally in India on Thursday increased to 767,296 with as many as 21,129 fatalities, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Covid-19 cases among Maharashtra Police personnel rose by 278 cases between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, going from 5,435 to 5,713. Among the 5,713 cases, as on Wednesday morning, 1,113 remained active. As many as 71 police personnel in the state, including five officers and 66 constabulary staff, have till now succumbed to Covid-19.

The major chunk of the total caseload and deaths from the two lakh-strong Maharashtra Police has been reported from Mumbai, its surrounding areas and among personnel of Maharashtra SRPF deployed in high-risk areas, who were later repatriated to their home units. Other than Mumbai and SRPF, a significant number of cases has been found among cops in Malegaon, Thane city, Pune city, Navi Mumbai and Solapur.

A staff member sanitises luggage at a hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)THE FIRST day of hotels reopening in the state saw a lukewarm response, even as owners said they did not expect business to start inching towards normal for at least six months with international travel, domestic tourism, and corporate activities stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.On Wednesday, Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India said only 10 per cent hotels opened in the state. The association welcomed the government’s decision but remained unsure of the demand. It said only about 25 per cent to 40 per cent hotels were expected to reopen in the first week, with most carrying out maintenance and other works to resume functioning.

Maharashtra recorded 6,603 new Covid-19 cases, of them 1,374 in Mumbai and 1,049 in Pune city, on Wednesday. The two cities are the only ones recording over 1,000 Covid-19 cases in the state. Maharashtra now has 2.23 lakh cases, of which 91,065 are actively infected. With 198 deaths registered on Wednesday, the toll in the state stands at 9,448.

Mumbai’s case count stands at 87,856. With 62 deaths, total fatalities in the city rose to 5,064. Mumbai is recording doubling in case load in 45 days and has an overall growth rate of 1.54 per cent in cases since July 1. BMC officials said 897 suspected cases of coronavirus were admitted in various centres on Wednesday.

The coronavirus death toll in Mumbai crossed the 5,000-mark on Wednesday with 62 new fatalities, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. While the death toll reached 5,061, the tally of coronavirus cases in the country's financial capital rose to 87,513 with 1,381 new patients found.

The number of recovered COVID-19 patients rose to 59,238 with 1,101 persons discharged from hospitals during the day, the BMC said. The city has now 23,214 active cases. 897 new suspected patients were admitted since previous evening.

With the detection of 25 fresh cases of coronavirus, the tally in Maharashtra's Amravati district reached 750 on Wednesday, a health official said. At least nine patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the count of recoveries to 519, the official said. The district now has 203 active COVID-19 cases, while the toll stands at 28, he said.

According to a report from the civil surgeon's office, three cases each were detected at Dhamangaon Railway quarantine centre, Bhimnagar and Rampuri camps, while Maulapura and Camp locality recorded two new cases each.

The number of coronavirus positive patients in Maharashtra rose to 2,23,724 with the addition of 6,603 cases on Wednesday, the state health department said. The COVID-19 fatality count grew by 198, which pushed the overall tally of victims in the state to 9,448, it said.

As many as 4,634 patients recovered from the infection and were discharged from hospitals across the state, it added. With this, the number of recovered patients has now gone up to 1,23,192. There are 91,084 active cases in the state at present, the department said. So far, 11,61,311 people have been tested in Maharashtra.

With 278 more police personnel testing positive for novel coronavirus in Maharashtra, the number of the infected cases in the police force has gone up to 5,713, an official said on Wednesday. A total of 71 police personnel have succumbed to the viral infection so far, he said. At 43, the highest death toll of police personnel has been reported from Mumbai. The deceased included two officers, he added.

The number of police personnel who have recovered from the infection so far stands at 4,531.

NCP MP Amol Kolhe tweeted on Wednesday that he had quarantined himself at home after coming into contact with two coronavirus-infected persons. Kolhe, Lok Sabha member from Shirur in Maharashtra who is a doctor himself, said he subsequently underwent COVID-19 test which came out negative, but decided to isolate himself by way of precaution.

No one will be allowed to distribute ration or food packets during the "janata curfew", which has been called to contain the spread of COVID-19, Aurangabad police commissioner Chiranjeev Prasad said on Wednesday. The local administration has called for a "Janata curfew" from July 10 to 18 in Maharashtra's Aurangabad city and some suburbs.

Speaking to PTI, Prasad said the curfew will be implemented in the strictest possible manner and all arterial roads will be monitored closely. Action will be taken against people driving aroundMwithout permission, he said.

Covid-19 tally in Mumbai's slum colony Dharavi has risen to 2,338 with the addition of 3 new cases, reported PTI quoting BMC. On Tuesday, just one COVID-19 patient was found in Dharavi, once a hotspot which has seen a dramatic improvement in the coronavirus situation. With the addition of three new COVID-19 cases, the tally in Dharavi has gone up to 2,338, a senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said.

The civic body has, however, stopped disclosing the number of deaths, if any, in the slum-dominated area since the past few days.

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday inaugurated a Plasma Therapy Unit for treating COVID-19 patients at the Seven Hills Hospital in suburban Andheri and urged those who have recovered from the deadly infection to help save lives by donating blood plasma. The unit is an initiative of initiative of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It will offer convalescent plasma therapy to COVID-19  patients using donated blood plasma from those who have recovered.

'We are facing an unprecedented challenge to our health in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising to the occasion, our doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, the police, municipal and government staff are working tirelessly to deliver effective healthcare to all those affected by the virus,' Tendulkar was quoted as saying by PTI.

'Researchers around the globe are working to find an effective vaccine and treatment. In this, plasma therapy has emerged as an option to treat critically ill patients. I congratulate the BMC on starting this service that will save lives,' added the former batsman, who has multiple records to his name. He urged those who have recovered to donate their blood and save critically ill patients.