Health volunteers performing temperature scanning for covid-19 symptoms at Gul Mohammed Chawl in Dharavi (File)
Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus News Live Updates: Maharashtra recorded 6,875 new Covid-19 cases, of them 1,374 with 219 fresh deaths on Thursday. Maharashtra now has 2.30 lakh cases, of which 93,673 are actively infected. With 219 deaths registered on today, the toll in the state stands at 9,667.
Even as the state continues to remain the worst-affected in terms of Covid tally in the country, Dharavi, the densely populated slum in Mumbai, reported nine new cases, taking the tally to 2,347 on Thursday. Mumbai accounted for only 31 per cent of fresh deaths on Wednesday, as opposed to 58.7 per cent a month ago on June 8.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday expressed concern over the recent spurt in Covid-19 cases in Mumbai’s neighbouring district, Thane, and some other Tier-2 cities. Since the easing of lockdown curbs on June 3, Thane district has seen a quantum jump in cases from 10,865 to 52,733. On Wednesday, the district added 1,904 cases to its tally.
Also, the BMC on Wednesday said it has, so far, conducted 3.64 lakh Covid-19 tests and had ramped up testing from 4,000 to 5,500 a day. Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis had alleged that the BMC had reduced testing due to which the number of registered cases in Mumbai had dipped.
In Pune, 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.
On the other hand, 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.
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Coronavirus Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pune LIVE news updates: Coronavirus screening camp in Mankhud Transit Camp (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
At least 31 persons, including a nurse from the district general hospital, tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra's Amravati district on Thursday, an official said.
With 31 new infections, the case count in the district has reached 781, including 28 deaths and 531 recoveries, the official said. The district now has 222 active cases, he added. As per a release issued by the civil surgeon's office, nine persons tested positive for the virus in the rural areas on Thursday.(PTI)
More than 300 incidents of attack on police personnel have been reported in Maharashtra during the Covid-induced lockdown and subsequent relaxation of norms, PTI quoted an official as saying. In the latest incident, an assistant police inspector sustained injuries after he was manhandled by some men at Ambi village of Paranda tehsil in Osmanabad district, he said.
At least 86 police personnel were injured while enforcing prohibitory orders and 863 persons have been detained in connection with over 300 attacks reported till date, the official said, according to PTI.
With an addition of 6,875 new covid-19 cases, Maharashtra's overall tally stands at 2,30,599 as on Thursday, the state health department said. A health department statement said 4,067 patientswere also discharged from hospitals, taking the total recoveries to 1,27,259 in the state. There are 93,673 active cases in the state, it said. So far, 12,22,487 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Maharashtra, the statement added.
Speaking to IAS officers appointed to monitor the functioning of government as well as private hospitals, CM Uddhav Thackeray said that complaints about shortage of hospital beds for coronavirus patients have dwindled but officials should focus on improving ambulance services.
The municipal corporation has acquired 80 per cent beds in 35 private hospitals in Mumbai and additional field hospitals have been set up. Now the focus should be on patient care for whichambulance services need to be regulated and improved, he said. Thackeray assured that people not fear shortage of medicines as the civic body has adequate stock.
The Maharashtra government on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that it was in the process of taking a decision on conducting final year exams for the post-graduate MD and MS courses. The high court was hearing a petition filed by Dr Nishant Gabbur, seeking a direction to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) to declare the dates and conduct final year exams for post-graduate MD/MS course.
The plea said, the exams were postponed twice due to the virus outbreak.
Assistant government pleader Jyoti Chavan said the process involved is preparation of schedule and taking every safety measure as it concerns resident doctors and examiners who are already in COVID-19 duty.
The number of coronavirus cases rose to 7,504 in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district on Thursday after 166 more people tested positive for the disease, according to PTI. Among the fresh cases, 101 were reported from the city and 65 from rural parts of the district.
The coronavirus figures in the district are as follows: Total cases 7,504, active cases 3,141, new cases 166, death toll 330, recovered 4,033.
The Maharashtra Police requests people to stay indoors during the pandemic. Currently, Maharashtra is the worst-hit in India, contributing to country's maximum caseload with 223,724 infections, including 9,448 deaths.
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.
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.