A plasma donation banner urging recovered Covid-19 patients to donate plasma at Sassoon hospital.MMaharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus News Live Updates: The total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra has crossed the 7 lakh-mark to reach 7,03,823, while the death toll has soared to 22,794. As many as 10,425 new infections and 329 fatalities were reported on Tuesday. The state had crossed the six lakh-mark on August 17.
There are 1,65,921 active cases in Maharashtra now, while 12,300 people were discharged from hospitals in the state on Tuesday, taking the number of recovered cases to 5,14,790. Maharashtra has carried out 37,24,911 tests so far.
The capital city Mumbai reported 587 new cases and 35 deaths during the same period pushing the total cases to 1,37,683 and toll to 7,474. There are 17,938 active coronavirus cases in Mumbai now. At 587, the number could have been the lowest in the last 100 days but the civic body clarified that a glitch on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) showed “incomplete data”. Meanwhile, the toll went up to 7,474 with 35 patients succumbing to the infection.
In Pune, with 1,228 new cases and 36 deaths, total infections is now 91,485 and casualties at 2,381.
Meanwhile, the Phase 2 human trials of Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine, manufactured at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, began on Tuesday, with the first dose of vaccine set to be administered to six trial participants at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in Pune on Wednesday. On Tuesday, as part of the process, the three men and women each were screened. They will be administered the vaccine if their RT-PCR and antibody test reports are clear.
On the other hand, Mumbai has received 1,044.8 mm rain between August 1 and 25, breaking a decade-long record of maximum August rainfall at 1,036.5 mm in 2010. The all-time highest August rain — at 1,254 mm — was recorded in 1958.
Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus Live Updates: PMC medical staff conduct health check-up camp at Golandas chauk in Wadarwad in Pune. (Express photo/Ashish Kale/File)
Delay in testing and admission of critical patients has led to an increase in the COVID-19 death toll in Maharashtra's Palghar district, collector Dr Kailash Shinde said on Wednesday. In an official statement, the collector said that 60 per cent of COVID-19 deaths were of patients who succumbed to the infection within 72 hours of being admitted to hospitals.
This indicates that majority of COVID-19 suspects don't come forward for testing at the right time and are admitted to hospitals in a critical condition at the eleventh hour, he said. In order to ramp up testing in the district, screening camps will be set up in villages or wards where there are more than five active patients, 500 RT-PCRs and over 200 antigen tests will be done every day, Dr Shinde said.
The Dahanu MRHRU lab will be able to conduct 200 free tests from next week, he added. As on Tuesday, the COVID-19 tally in Palghar stood at 22,745, while the death toll was at 456.
With the addition of 788 positive cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has gone up to 1,16,413, an official said on Wednesday. These new cases were reported on Tuesday, the official from the district collectorate said.
The fatality count in the district reached 3,348 with the death of 47 patients on Tuesday. Twelve of them were from the rural parts of the district, he said. The recovery rate in the district is now 86.65 per cent, while the mortality rate is 2.88 per cent, the official said.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the number of positive cases reached 22,745, while the death toll mounted to 456 on Tuesday, another official said.
As many as 123 persons tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, rising the tally of cases to 21,515 on Wednesday, an official said. According to a release from the district authorities, of the fresh COVID-19 cases, 67 have been reported from the limits of Aurangabad city, while 56 are from rural areas.
The district has recorded 21,515 cases so far, of which 4,430 patients are currently undergoing treatment, the data revealed. At least 287 patients were discharged from various hospitals on Tuesday, taking the number of recoveries to 16,440, the official said. As on Wednesday morning, the death toll in the district stood at 645, he added.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to provide copies of the latest medical reports of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde and Vernon Gonsalves, accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, to their families, lawyers and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before the next hearing on August 28. The court held the accused and their families had a right to know the status of their health and should be given the reports without any delay.
A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and V G Bisht was hearing interim bail plea by activist Sudha Bharadwaj, a co-accused in the case, on medical grounds and due to co-morbidities in view of Covid-19 outbreak in prisons. While Bhardwaj is lodged in Mumbai’s Byculla Women’s Jail, Teltumbde and Gonsalves are lodged at Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.
At this time of the year, in the pre-Covid-19 world, undergraduate medical students, second year onwards, would mill about in hospital wards examining patients, taking their history, and crowding around their lecturers at patients’ bedsides. Postgraduates could be found in operation theatres assisting or observing a surgery. With the focus entirely on coronavirus over the last five months, students fear the loss of an entire year as they grapple with online lectures and zero practical exposure.
Akash Rade, a final-year MBBS student in Seth GS Medical College attached with KEM hospital, is at home in Jalgaon since March. Before the pandemic, MBBS students spent three hours in hospital wards daily to diagnose patients and learn about treatment lines from their lecturers. Those practical sessions have stopped.
“The final year is a formative year for us. Our lecturers are not taking online classes because they are busy so we have asked senior resident doctors to take classes,” Rade said.
Phase-2 trials of the Oxford University vaccine for novel Coronavirus begin in India today, with the first doses being given to a set of six volunteers at Pune’s Bharati Vidyapeeth medical college and hospital. This vaccine, developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, is considered the most promising to be successful, and is undergoing phase-3 trials in some other countries.
Indian regulatory rules require a vaccine to be tested within India for it to be authorised for use on Indian population. Accordingly, Pune’s Serum Institute of India, which has an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce and market this vaccine in India and many other countries, has initiated human trials. Both phase-2 and phase-3 trials would take place in India. Phase-1, during which the vaccine’s safety is assessed, is not mandatory to be repeated in India.
Auditors appointed by the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations, to verify the amounts being charged by private hospitals for treating Covid-19, have saved Rs 44 lakh of patients and their families so far, Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao said on Tuesday.
After receiving several complaints of private hospitals overcharging Covid patients, the two civic bodies appointed multiple teams of auditors, which have started verifying the bills issued to Covid-19 patients admitted at various private hospitals in the city.
In Pune, the administration had received 102 complaints of overcharging by private hospitals and the auditors, upon checking the bills, found overcharging in 65 of the cases. The cumulative total of the bills checked was Rs 2.15 crore and the auditors found an unfair inflation of Rs 30.94 lakh in these. After adjustments, the cumulative total of the bills shrank to Rs 1.84 crore.
Many doctors working with YCM Hospital, a dedicated Covid hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad, have been protesting as they are yet to get their appointment letters. The ruling BJP in the PCMC has been under fire over the issue. Pimpri-Chinchwad Mayor Usha Dhore, in an interview to The Indian Express, says the appointment of doctors who have been picked by the selection committee will be approved by the General Body at a meeting on Thursday. Read the full interview here
The Phase 2 human trials of Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine, manufactured at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, began on Tuesday, with the first dose of vaccine set to be administered to six trial participants at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in Pune on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, as part of the process, the three men and women each were screened. They will be administered the vaccine if their RT-PCR and antibody test reports are clear.
“We are enrolling six persons for the trial, and the screening process is underway. Their RT-PCR and antibody tests are being conducted. If the reports are favourable, the vaccine doses will be administered,” Dr Sanjay Lalwani, medical director of Bharati Vidyapeeth’s medical college and hospital, confirmed to
Meanwhile, at least 16 people died after a building collapsed in a residential area of Mahad in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Monday. So far, 78 people have been rescued from the debris.
The building, named Tarique Garden, was not more than 10 years ago. It was a ground-plus-four structure. Around 40 families resided in the building. At 6.50 pm Monday, the top three floors collapsed. Some residents managed to escape before it came down.
Mumbai has received 1,044.8 mm rain between August 1 and 25, breaking a decade-long record of maximum August rainfall at 1,036.5 mm in 2010. The all-time highest August rain — at 1,254 mm — was recorded in 1958.
After sporadic showers over the last week and a dry Tuesday, the city will receive light rain this week, India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) district weather forecast said. The IMD has downgraded all weather warnings for the week for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar with the possibility of light to moderate rain till the month end.
In the 24 hours, ending at 8.30 am Tuesday, IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 13.4mm which falls in the “light” rain category. The Colaba observatory recorded 1.8 mm rain during the period.
Welcome to our Maharashtra coronavirus LIVE blog. The total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra has crossed the 7 lakh-mark to reach 7,03,823, while the death toll has soared to 22,794. Follow to get all the latest updates here