Maharashtra Coronavirus Live Updates: Cases in Maharashtra cross eight lakh-mark

The 816-bed jumbo hospital set up at Nehrunagar in Pimpri-Chinchwad started functioning from Tuesday. On the first day, 12 COVID-19 patients were admitted at the jumbo hospital. PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Santosh Patil said initially, they are taking in patients from other hospitals like YCMH or Bhosari hospital. "Later, we will start admitting walk in patients," he said.

Pimpri-Chinchwad Tuesday saw around 600 positive cases, a drop from around 1200 cases surfacing daily. But Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said, "This could be because we did not get reports of test conducted by private hospitals. Tomorrow, we will get all the test reports together and will see more cases." The total number of positive cases so far has reached 49,300 in Pimpri-Chinchwad. (With inputs from Manoj More)

Nagpur district on Tuesday reported a record 1,447 coronavirus positive cases, taking the COVID-19 count to 31,002, while 46 deaths put the toll so far at 1,091, an official said. A total of 20,597 people have recovered from the infection so far, including 1,353 discharged during the day, he added. Nagpur district now has 9,314 active cases.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government has advised vulnerable people, including those aged above 65 and below 10, to stay at home and step out only for essential and health purposes. The government on Monday issued fresh guidelines, further easing restrictions in Maharashtra, but said the general lockdown in the state will continue till September 30. "Persons above 65 years of age, those with co-morbidities, pregnant women and children below the age of 10 years are advised to stay at home, except for essential and health purposes," the government said in the new guidelines. (PTI)

With nearly 2,000 new beds for Covid-19 patients coming up last week, the demand for medicinal oxygen, often needed by patients who are in advanced stages of the infection, is set to rise considerably.

“Two new jumbo hospitals have come up in Pune, besides two other facilities. In neighbouring Solapur and Satara districts, two new Covid facilities have come up. All these facilities will need additional amount of oxygen as the patient count goes up,” Joint Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration, S B Patil, told The Indian Express on Monday.

Pune district needs 175 metric tonne of medicinal oxygen per day. “Eleven companies supply the oxygen. As of now, supply and demand levels are same, but it is a tight situation…,” he said.

Over 35,000 police personnel will be deployed across the city on Tuesday on the occasion of Anant Chaturdashi. The Mumbai Police’s deployment has been scaled down from last year as several large Ganpati pandals, including Lalbaugcha Raja, are not celebrating the festival this year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Issuing guidelines for the festival, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said the civic body will collect Ganesh idols from the devotees even at natural ‘visarjan’ spots and no one will be allowed to immerse idols on their own to avoid overcrowding. BMC has deployed 23,000 officers and workers across 445 immersion sites to assist the devotees.

Out of the 445 immersion sites, 70 are natural immersion spots while 168 artificial ponds have been created this year, five times more than last year. In addition, there are 37 mobile immersion sites.

The traffic police said that portions of 54 roads leading to beaches and waterfronts will remain closed to traffic and motorists would only be able to travel in one direction on a further 56 roads. Parking will not be allowed on another 99 roads between 11 am on Tuesday and 6 am on Wednesday.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to postpone JEE Main examination for students residing in flood-affected areas in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. However, it said that students residing in flood-hit areas can approach the National Testing Agency (NTA), if they were unable to reach the exam centre or reached late. The court asked NTA to check the veracity of the claims and decide their representation within 15 days.

This comes after the state government submitted reports by district collectors stating that the flood situation was grim in only a few areas including Gadchiroli and there would not be transportation issues for examinees from other areas.

Nearly half an hour before the exam was to begin on Tuesday, a division bench of Justice Ravi K Deshpande and Pushpa V Ganediwala urgently heard a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) based on a letter written by a citizen from Bhandara seeking postponement of JEE Main examination scheduled on Tuesday as a relief for students residing in flood-affected districts in Vidarbha.

As expected, Pune overtook Delhi on Monday to become the city with the largest number of people infected with the novel Coronavirus. The city, which had recorded one of the earliest cases of coronavirus infections in the country, now has more than 1.75 lakh people who have been infectedat some point.

Pune has been reporting the largest number of cases every day, between 2,000 and 3,000, for the last couple of weeks. District officials say this was the result of enhanced testing, and it was only normal that the cases would rise because of that, before stabilising, and hopefully, reducing.

A recent serological survey in Pune had revealed that in some pockets of the city, more than 50 per cent of the people might already have been infected with the disease, though most of these were asymptomatic cases and were never detected. This is the highest disease prevalence detected in any city through serological surveys. More than 50 per cent prevalence in a population group would imply a slowdown in the transmission rate, meaning fewer people should be getting the infection every day. This slowdown is still to begin in the Pune city, however.

The parents of at least 25 schools in Mumbai alleged on Monday that schools are continuing to charge fees for facilities they are not providing at the moment — such as fees for transport, laboratory, library as well as for sports day and annual day among others.

According to the parents, they would file separate petitions in the Bombay High Court against the respective schools for continuing to charge exorbitant fees despite remote learning being in progress and the impact of the pandemic on the household finances. They also alleged that many schools have removed students from online teaching groups and barred them from appearing for exams until fees are paid in full.

“The written exam for my child begins from September 7. Our login ID for the exam portal has been blocked,” said the parent of a student studying at a Mira Road-based school.

Vikram Patil from Jakimirya in Ratnagiri lives right by the sea. On Tuesday, his family will bid adieu to Ganpati Bappa after hosting the deity in their home for 10 days. This year, however, there will be no procession ahead of immersing the Ganesh idol in the sea and the festival will come to an end, as Patil puts it, without any ‘josh (enthusiasm)’.

Each year ahead of Ganeshotsav, natives of Konkan are homeward bound from Mumbai, Pune and other parts of the state. The 10-day festival is celebrated with more fervour in the Konkan region than in other parts of the state.

In the three coastal districts of the region, most families host the deity in their homes. Unlike Mumbai and Pune where huge Ganesh idols arrive in thousands of pandals, in Konkan, the number of idols worshipped at home far outnumber those worshipped in public pandals. And the immersions on the second day after the idol is worshipped for one-and-half day, and on the fifth day, are higher compared to tenth day immersions, locals say.

The Maharashtra government on Monday lifted restriction on inter-district movement of persons and goods, and said e-pass will not be required for undertaking such a journey from September 2. At the same time, the government said the general lockdown in the state will continue till September 30 as part of efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.

On Monday, it also raised attendance in its offices and has allowed hotels and lodges to operate at 100 per cent capacity from September 2, but schools, colleges, cinema halls and swimming pools will continue to remain closed till September 30.

Easing of restrictions came even as Maharashtra continues to register a record number of new coronavirus cases with no flattening of curve in sight in the state. The government announced that there shall be no restriction on inter-district movement of persons and goods, including those for cross-land border trade under treaties with neighbouring countries from September 2.

Defying the social distancing norms, scores of members of the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Warkaris launched a protest on Monday for reopening of the famous temple of Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur town in Maharashtra's Solapur district. During their agitation near the temple, which has been shut due to COVID-19 restrictions, Ambedkar said they were waiting for a response from the district collector over the demand and added that "I am here to break rules," prompting the Shiv Sena and the Congress to hit out at him.

Ambedkar later claimed that 15 members, including him, were allowed to enter the temple. Later in the day, police booked more than 1,000 people, including Ambedkar and members of warkari outfits, for unlawful assembly and for violating COVID-19 restrictions during the protest, a senior police officer said.

Local train and Metro rail services will continue to remain suspended in Maharashtra for the time being. Also, large public gatherings and congregations will be barred.

Two days after the Union government announced major relaxations in Unlock 4.0, Maharashtra — the worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic — has decided against the resumption of suburban rail services for the general public and Metro rail services for now.

The August 29 Union Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines had asked states to allow resumption of Metro rail services “in a graded manner” from September 7. The Railways had also indicated that it was ready to resume suburban rail operations for the Mumbai Metropolitan Area if the state government requested for it.

With 1,931 new cases on Monday, Pune has now overtaken Delhi to become the city with the maximum number of people infected with the novel coronavirus. Monday’s addition took Pune’s total case count to 1,75,105, leaving behind Delhi’s 1,74,748, as per figures from the state Public Health department till August 31.

Pune already has the maximum number of active cases in the country. It currently has 52,172 patients, much more than about 20,000 in Mumbai and about 15,000 in Delhi. As many as 4,069 people have succumbed to the infection in the district, while 1,18,324 infected people have recovered from the disease so far.

The Pune district administration has been struggling to check the spread of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March, when it registered the first patient of the state. The surge has put the administration on its toes, but its efforts have not yielded desired results.

The total number of infections in Maharashtra rose to 7,92,541 with 11,852 new cases being reported on Monday. With 184 new deaths, the state’s fatality count rose to 24,583. Mumbai city reported 1,179 news cases on Monday. The recovery rate in the state is 72.37 per cent, while the fatality rate is 3.1 per cent.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally rose to 7,92,541 with the state reporting 11,852 new cases on Monday, the health department said. With 184 new deaths, the state's fatality count rose to 24,583, it said. The department said of the 184 deaths reported on Monday, 143 were from the past 48 hours, while 32 from last week. Nine of the deaths were from the period before the last week. (PTI)

More than 35,000 police personnel will be deployed across Mumbai to ensure incident-free immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh on Tuesday, an official said on Monday. He said about 5,000 CCTV cameras will keep a close watch on immersion, which is expected to be low-key sans processions this year in view of COVID-19 restrictions. Various wings of the police department including the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), Riots Control Unit, Rapid Action Force (RAF), and Home Guards will be manning the streets on Tuesday. (PTI)

Announcing ‘Unlock 4’ guidelines, the Maharashtra government announced significant easing of restrictions, including lifting restrictions on inter-district movement of persons and goods and raising attendance in its offices. Hotels and lodges will be allowed to operate at 100 per cent capacity from September 2, but schools, colleges, cinema halls and swimming pools will continue to remain closed till September 30. Read more here

Around 43 per cent of the total coronavirus cases in India have been recorded from just three states, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Union health ministry said on Monday. It asserted that the Centre is regularly engaging with the states and Union Territories that are reporting a spurt in cases and those with a higher fatality rate.

Such states and Union Territories have been advised to undertake aggressive measures to ensure higher testing, effective clinical management to lower fatality and save lives along with efficient monitoring at various levels, the health ministry said.  "India has registered 78,512 cases in the last 24 hours (August 30). Hence the report by certain media entities of about 80,000 cases in the last 24 hours is without any basis," it said.

The ministry also said that seven states have contributed to 70 per cent of these new cases in the last 24 hours. Of these, Maharashtra has contributed the maximum caseload amounting to almost 21 per cent, followed by Andhra Pradesh 13.5 per cent, Karnataka 11.27 per cent and Tamil Nadu with 8.27 per cent.

Several Warkaris and members of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi launched a protest on Monday demanding reopening of the famous temple of Lord Vitthal in Pandharpur town of Maharashtra's Solapur district, PTI reported. The protesters gathered near the temple, which has been shut due to the coronavirus-induced restrictions, and demanded that it be opened for devotees. "We are waiting for a response from the district collector," said Ambedkar. To a question on protesters gathering in a large number and there being no social distancing, he said it is the sentiments of people that have brought them to Pandharpur.