The number of novel coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rose by 18,105 on Thursday -- the highest single-day count so farMaharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus News Live Updates: In an attempt to curb cases, the Maharashtra government will launch a statewide campaign from September 15 to screen 2.25 crore families for possible Covid-19 infection. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday announced that the ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ campaign will be launched by the health department with the help of NGOs and elected representatives to control the spread of Covid-19 and impart health education to the people.
The state on Friday reported 19,218 new cases, taking the tally to 8,63,062 while the death toll rose to 25,964. The spike in cases broke Thursday’s record of 18,105 cases.
In Pune, as many as 80 medical staff, including 40 doctors and 40 nurses, had quit the recently inaugurated jumbo Covid facility at CoEP grounds by Friday, raising issues of their safety. “At least 80 of our medical staff, including 40 doctors and as many nurses, have quit the jumbo facility,” said Sujit Patker, director of Lifeline, which is managing the operations of the hospital.
A health worker takes samples for Covid-19 testing in Mumbai. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty)
Considering the coronavirus spread in rural areas, the local administration in Maharashtra's Latur district plans to increase the number of oxygen-fitted beds at treatment facilities. Private hospitals in rural areas may also be roped in to cater to Covid-19 patients, district collector G Shreekant told PTI on Friday night. "Due to limited manpower and infrastructure, private hospitals are also being considered for Covid-19 treatment in Latur. We will arrange for oxygen supply at these facilities," the collector said.
A fire broke out at the Operation Theatre (OT) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Cantonment General Hospital due to a suspected short-circuit, in Pune on Saturday morning. No one was injured in the incident. The Covid ICU ward in the hospital also remain unaffected, officials said. Three fire tenders of the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) brigade rushed to the spot after the blaze erupted at around 11 am.
As many as 80 medical staff, including 40 doctors and 40 nurses, have quit the recently inaugurated jumbo Covid facility at CoEP grounds by Friday, raising issues of their safety. “At least 80 of our medical staff, including 40 doctors and as many nurses, have quit the jumbo facility,” said Sujit Patker, director of Lifeline, which is managing the operations of the hospital. The doctors and nurses had claimed that they feared for their life from people who were “gatecrashing the jumbo facility, abusing and threatening”. “Some workers of political parties had gatecrashed and abused the medical staff, who then raised concerns regarding their safety. Doctors are being pressurised, RTIs are being filed… Instead of allowing them to focus on treatment of Covid-19 patients, their attention is being diverted towards non-issues,” Patker said.
The Mumbai police lifted a four-and-a-half-month-long night curfew in the city in August. However, prohibitory orders under Section 144 are still in effect and people need valid reasons to leave their homes. Prohibitory orders were first issued in Mumbai in March after the Maharashtra government announced the lockdown. The prohibitory orders, which have to be issued afresh every 15 days, had restricted the movement of people between 9 pm and 5 am, except in cases of emergencies.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started to conduct antigen tests on hawkers and shopkeepers for the novel coronavirus disease in the areas that have witnessed more than one per cent virus growth rate. The civic body’s move comes on the heels of the gradual relaxations in lockdown restrictions over the last month under which all shops have been allowed to reopen. On August 5, the BMC had allowed all shops to operate, revoking its previous odd-and-even rule. With most markets resuming business, BMC officials said, the Covid-19 tests were crucial to ensure that transmission of the virus through hawkers and shopkeepers to their customers could be contained.
Private hospitals have been reporting a spike in new admissions of Covid-19 patients with the wait list for intensive care units in several hospitals growing over the past week. The increased strain is being attributed to the probability of people contracting the infection during Ganeshotsav, which saw increased socialising. Also, BMC’s decision to reconvert 72 nursing homes into non-Covid centres is forcing people to turn towards private hospitals. Data available in the public domain shows that of the 15,911 isolation beds in the city, 7,663 are available — suggesting that adequate number of beds are at hand to cater to patients. However, the availability of beds in private hospitals is substantially lower than that in public hospitals. Only 59 ICUs remain vacant in the private sector as opposed to 113 in the public sector till September 3. In private hospitals, while 82 per cent of allotted the beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients, public hospitals had lower occupancy at 70 per cent.
Doctors have urged people not to unnecessarily undergo expensive chest CT scans and use them as a screening tool to detect Covid-19. “A CT chest scan has been increasingly used as one of the first investigations of diagnosis for Covid-19. Unfortunately, there are limitations as CT findings — though sensitive — are not specific for Covid-19,” said Dr Jitendra Oswal, deputy medical director of Bharati Hospital. Antigen and RT-PCR tests are freely available and are the gold standard for diagnosis of Covid-19, he said. “For some time now, people have been undergoing CT scans on the recommendation of their general practitioners. The scan should be limited to diagnosing Covid-19 only in certain patients,” Oswal added.
A study by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to see the impact of the lockdown on the environment across the state has shown that Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport recorded the sharpest decline in pollution levels, followed by Sion in the city and Vasai West in Palghar. The study titled ‘Impact Evaluation of Covid-19 Pandemic on Environmental Attributes’ was commissioned by MPCB and the report was released on July 31. It was conducted twice – pre-lockdown, between March 1 and March 20 and during lockdown, between March 21 and June 1. The average AQI (air quality index) recorded at the international airport during the pre-lockdown period was 153.05, which falls in the “moderate” category. The average AQI recorded at the station during lockdown was 54.41, falling in the “satisfactory” category. The AQI at almost all locations in Mumbai improved from moderate to satisfactory during lockdown, stated the report.
The government will launch a statewide campaign from September 15 to screen 2.25 crore families for possible Covid-19 infection. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday announced that the ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ campaign will be launched by the health department with the help of NGOs and elected representatives to control the spread of Covid-19 and impart health education to the people. The campaign, to be conducted in two phases, is aimed at controlling the spread of Covid-19 while more lockdown restrictions are eased. While the first phase of the campaign will be completed by October 10, the second phase will be undertaken between October 12 and October 24.
As Pune has become the hotspot of Covid-19 pandemic, NCP chief Sharad Pawar took the district administration to task over failure in containing the spread of infection and resolve the woes of residents despite setting up a jumbo facility. Pune district has been the most affected in the country with the total number of infected persons crossing 1.8 lakh mark, including one lakh in Pune Municipal Corporation area alone, which is also the highest in the country. The district also has the highest number of active cases. Pawar, who reviewed the pandemic situation in Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Thursday, held discussions with the Pune administration and city leaders of NCP on Friday.
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Nana Patole on Friday said he has tested COVID-19 positive, two days before the monsoon session of state legislature begins here. Patole said he developed symptoms while touring his constituency in Vidarbha region to monitor flood relief work. "I got myself tested and the results were positive," he tweeted. He asked those who came in his contact recently to get themselves tested. NCP MLA Narhari Zhirwal, who is the Assembly Deputy Speaker, will chair the proceedings in Patole's absence, a Vidhan Bhawan official said. For the two-day session, officials have put in place a slew of measures to ensure members do not contract the infection and House proceedings go on without any hindrance.
Welcoming the Maharashtra government's move to fully reopen hotels, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India's (HRAWI) on Friday urged the government to allow restaurants to re-open with dine-in services as well. The association had written to the state government seeking relaxations for the hospitality industry, including the re-opening of restaurants and also allowing hotels to operate at 100 per cent capacities, HRAWI said in a statement. "While the government has given a nod to the later, the former request did not find any mention in the order on August 31," the statement added. HRAWI said the industry has appreciated the government's decision to allow hotels to operate with full capacity but is pressing on it to consider allowing restaurants to re-open with dine-in services as well. "We are glad that the Maharashtra government has allowed 100 per cent capacity utilisation for hotels in the state. Restaurants inside hotels are allowed to open for only in-house guests," HRAWI President Gurbaxish Singh Kohli said.
Four resident doctors at hospitals in Mumbai are suspected to have contracted coronavirus for a second time, an official of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) said on Friday. However, a senior doctor from one of the two hospitals said it was not clear whether it was a 're-infection' or mere continuation of the earlier coronavirus infection. 'Four resident doctors working at Sion and Nair hospitals have tested positive for coronavirus again. All four had tested positive for the infection a month ago as well,' the senior MARD functionary said. The Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Sion and BYL Nair Charitable Hospital in Mumbai Central area are two major facilities where COVID-19 patients are being treated. (PTI)
Maharashtra's Legislative Assembly session will begin on September 7 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Several precations have been taken by officials, including social distancing measures, Covid-19 kits for MLAs and new seating arrangements. A day before the session, members will take Covid-19 tests to ensure they do not have the disease. The session, the Sena-led MVA's first since assuming office, will be the shortest-even monsoon session due to the pandemic. It has already been postponed twice due to Covid-19.
Maharashtra is touching a new high of daily infections every few days. For most of August, Maharashtra had been reporting between 7,000 and 11,000 new cases every day. But that has begun to rise steadily since the last week of August. On Thursday, more than 18,000 new cases were detected in the state for the first time. Read Amitabh Sinha's report
As it is mandatory to wear masks in Mumbai, the city's civic body the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has collected Rs 27.48 lakh in fines from 2,798 defaulters since April. The BMC said is had also issued warnings to 9,954 citizens. Wearing a face mask in a public place was made mandatory in the city in the first week of April. A defaulter can be fined up to Rs 1,000 for violating the order. Read more here
The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), which allowed malls to reopen from Wednesday, has decided to conduct antigen tests on all persons, including customers, entering such establishments. "Each mall in Thane will be provided antigen testing kits by the TMC and a team will be present to test the customers as well as the staff of the mall,” Sandeep Malvi, TMC deputy commissioner, said Thursday. Read Neeraj Tiwari's report
Maharashtra has reported a 16 per cent coronavirus positivity rate among healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, staffers and hospital cleaners, which is the second-highest in the country after Telangana (18 per cent). On Thursday, the Centre pulled up states with a high positivity rate of Covid-19 among healthcare workers and asked them to evaluate the situation. The other states and Union Territories with a high Covid-19 positivity rate are Delhi (14 per cent), Karnataka (13 per cent), Puducherry (12 per cent) and Punjab (11 per cent).
"We have drawn the attention of these states through the Ministry of Home Affairs. The issue highlights hospital infection practises. After all, we must raise the question how healthcare workers are getting infected. Is it the hospital, because that could be one reason, and if standard protection control is being followed or not," Rajesh Bhushan, health secretary, Government of India, said at a press briefing Thursday. Read Tabassum Barnagarwala's report
Mumbai detected 1,526 infections on Thursday, taking its Covid-19 count beyond 1.5 lakh (1,50,095). The city has 7,764 deaths. In some good news, however, Mumbai is witnessing a decline in the monthly growth rate of new Covid-19 cases. In June, the city witnessed a 95.6 per cent growth rate, while in July it was 47 per cent. In August, this came down to 27.5 per cent. In absolute numbers too, there is a steady fall in new cases – from 37,972 in June to 36,626 cases in July and 31,521 cases in August.
Good morning and welcome to our live blog on the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra. The state detected 18,105 infections on Thursday — the highest single-day count so far — taking its tally to 8.43 lakh (8,43,844). At least 391 people succumbed to the disease, following which the death toll rose to 25,586. There are over 2 lakh people being treated for the disease across the state, while over 6 lakh have recovered. Follow this blog through the day for the latest news and updates.