A worker sanitises PMPML buses in Pune. Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus News Live Updates: With Pune carrying the maximum Covid load in the country and the NCP getting blamed for the situation, party chief Sharad Pawar has been camping in the city for the last three days to oversee containment efforts. On Saturday, he sat through the weekly review meeting of the district administration, in his capacity as a Rajya Sabha member hailing from the district. He followed it up with a meeting with elected members of the district in Parliament and the state Assembly. Union minister Prakash Javadekar, who is a resident of Pune, was also present at the two meetings.
For the first time since the outbreak, Maharashtra crossed the 20,000-mark in daily cases and became the first state to report such a high single-day spike, as it recorded 20,489 cases on Saturday. With this, the state has now reported 8.83 lakh cases.
Mumbai too is witnessing a spike with 1,737 cases recorded on Saturday, taking the total number of reported cases to 1.53 lakh. For nearly a month, the city was reporting close to 1,000 to 1,200 cases daily.
As many as 312 deaths were reported in the state, taking the toll to 26,726.
Sharad Pawar leaves after a review meeting on Covid in Pune on Saturday. (Express Photo: Ashish Kale)
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday held three meetings to review the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Pune. While the first meeting was with the officials of district and state government, the second and third meetings were with people’s representatives and editors of various newspapers, respectively. “Next month will be crucial for containment of Covid-19 in Pune. Hence, it is necessary that we change our appeal from ‘Don’t be afraid, take precaution’ to the new appeal of ‘Don’t be careless, take precaution’,” Javadekar said after meeting newspaper editors in Pune. Briefing media on Saturday evening, the minister said, “We received many suggestions and we have formulated a plan of action. We will increase antigen tests in containment zones. We will also soon begin the second round of serological survey; this time, the sample will be bigger.”
Under fire over alleged mismanagement of the jumbo Covid facility located at COEP grounds, the Pune district administration on Saturday said the facility will start to function better in the next two-three days. “On the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, we are taking a slew of steps to streamline the functioning of the jumbo Covid facility. We will need two to three days’ time to get everything right,” Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao told The Indian Express after a review meeting on the pandemic situation in the district. For starters, Rao said the administration will step up police security at the jumbo facility. “The deputy CM has directed that a police chowky should be set up at the facility to stop people from gate-crashing… There will be more police personnel outside the jumbo facility,” he said.
The highest cases amongst all municipal corporations, however, were recorded in Pune city with 2,366 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of reported cases to 1.1 lakh. Pune’s case fatality is 2.4 per cent, which is half of Mumbai’s 5.09 per cent. Nagpur has recorded 36,243 cases so far, but its surrounding districts have managed to control the spread of the infection. Chandrapur has more than 3,500 cases, followed by Bhandara at 1,554, Wardha at 1,430, and Gadchiroli at 919.
As many as 312 deaths were reported in the state, taking the toll to 26,726. Health officials said 190 of these deaths took place in the last 48 hours and the rest before that. Mumbai recorded 33 deaths, while 32 were reported from Pune, 27 from Nagpur, 15 from Kolhapur, and 13 from Satara. The state tested 90,458 people, out of which 22.65 per cent people tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday. Pune rural recorded 1,345 new cases, while 1,342 cases were reported from Nagpur, 953 from Pimpri-Chinchwad, and 939 from Satara. State officials said they were keeping an eye on Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Satara and Nagpur, where cases had started to spiral out of control.
For the first time, Maharashtra crossed the 20,000-mark in daily Covid-19 cases and became the first state to report such a high single-day spike, as it recorded 20,489 cases on Saturday. With this, the state has now reported 8.83 lakh cases. Mumbai too is witnessing a spike with 1,737 cases recorded on Saturday, taking the total number of reported cases to 1.53 lakh. For nearly a month, the city was reporting close to 1,000 to 1,200 cases daily. Follow our live blog for all the latest updates.