Health workers test for Covid-19 at Mankhud, Mumbai on September 7, 2020. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty)Maharashtra, Mumbai Coronavirus News Live Updates: At the epicentre of the pandemic in India, Maharashtra has so far reported 9,43,772 cases and 27,407 deaths. On Tuesday, the state recorded 20,131 new cases and 380 deaths. A total of 13,234 patients were discharged after treatment in the day, taking the number of recoveries in the state to 6,72,556, a health official said. The state is now left with 2,43,446 active cases.
With 1,346 new cases, Mumbai’s tally rose to 1,58,756, while the fatality count increased by 42 in a day to 7,942. Pune city reported 1,711 cases and 35 fatalities in the day, taking its total infection count to 1,16,951 and toll to 2,817, the official said.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said that the coronavirus crisis will not end any time soon. “We were able to contain the number of cases between March and May, but it does not seem like the pandemic will be conquered in the near future. Even the World Health Organisation has indicated that it won’t end soon,” he said.
Admitting that the crisis was worsening and that the number of cases was on the rise across the state, Thackeray defended that the government had been taking proactive steps to contain the spread of the infection.
Meanwhile, leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, on Tuesday alleged that the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai was much higher than those reported by the government.
Policemen ride horses as they patrol a deserted beach in Mumbai, Tuesday. (PTI)
The state government order dated August 31 to unilaterally fix rates to be charged by private hospitals for Covid-19 treatment has not been well received by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which has threatened a massive protest and petitioning the High Court over the decision.
An emergency state council meeting of IMA Maharashtra was held on September 4, where a resolution was unanimously approved to reject the circular issued on August 31. Close to 45,000 doctors from all the 216 branches of IMA Maharashtra will stage peaceful protests, with effect from September 10, in front of the offices of collectors, deputy collectors, municipal commissioners, district administrative officers, civil surgeons, among others. A doctors’ rally will be held at Azad Maidan in Mumbai as well.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Pune Municipal Corporation limits increased by 1,880 to touch 1,09,838 on Tuesday, while 35 deaths took the toll to 2,584, an official said. A total of 2,022 people were discharged during the day, he added.
The coronavirus crisis will not end any time soon, said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday.
“We were able to contain the number of cases between March and May, but it does not seem like the pandemic will be conquered in the near future. Even the World Health Organisation has indicated that it won’t end soon,” the chief minister said, during his speech before the conclusion of the curtailed monsoon session of the state Assembly.
At the epicentre of the pandemic in India, Maharashtra has so far reported 9,23,641 cases and 27,027 deaths by September 7. Admitting that the crisis was worsening and that the number of cases was on the rise across the state, Thackeray defended that the government had been taking proactive steps to contain the spread of the infection.
The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 43,70,129, after the country detected 89,706 additional cases in the 24 hours ending 9 am Wednesday. With 1,115 deaths, the toll now stands at 73,890. The states with the highest number of Covid-19 cases are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, on Tuesday alleged that the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai was much higher than those reported by the government.
Accusing the government of suppressing the number of cases and deaths, Fadnavis alleged that while the number of Covid-19 related deaths reported in Mumbai was 7,900 (as on September 7), the actual number was nearly 15,000.
“We weren’t fighting the coronavirus at all in the initial half of the pandemic. We were playing the number game. This is still being done. We can’t fight the pandemic this way,” he said.
Home Minister tests positive The Covid-19 tally in the financial capital increased to 1,58,756 on Tuesday with the addition of 1,346 new cases, while 42 fresh deaths took the toll to 7,939, the city civic body said. Notably,after a gap of more than 15 days, the COVID-19 fatalities in the citywent past the 40-mark. Earlier on August 21, the city had recorded 42 deaths.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said with 887 more COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals, the number of recovered cases increased to 1,25,906. According to the BMC, Mumbai's COVID-19 recoveryrate is 79 per cent, and the city has 24,556 active cases as on Tuesday.
The BMC said the city's average growth rate of COVID-19 cases increased to 1.07 per cent, while the average doubling rate came down to 65 days.
The two-day monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly ended here on Tuesday. Duration of the session had been curtailed in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Deputy Speaker Narhari Zhirwal read out the order of prorogation. The winter session of the legislature will start in Nagpur from December 7.
As many as 12 bills were passed on Monday and Tuesday, alongwith supplementary demands of Rs 29,000 crore.
The session saw proceedings for 9 hours and 30 minutes while one hour and ten minutes were wasted due to adjournments, Assembly officials said.
Home Minister tests positive Over 140 persons, including staff and officers of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's office, on Tuesday donated their plasma and blood at Raj Bhavan here to help COVID-19 patients, an official said. As per a release issued by the Governor's office, Sir JJ Group of Hospitals organised a donation camp, in which employees of the Raj Bhavan, including those who had recovered from coronavirus, and their family members participated.
Staff and officers of Raj Bhavan who had recovered from coronavirus in the recent weeks turned "Covid warriors" by lining up for blood and plasma donation at the camp, the official communication stated.
Referring to the fear surrounding the pandemic, Koshyari urged people not to be fearful, but to be careful while facing the challenge.
The tally of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai's slum colony of Dharavi increased to 2,830 on Tuesday with six more persons testing positive for the infection, the city civic body said.
A Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officer said 2,459 COVID-19 patients from Dharavi have already recovered and discharged from hospitals. He said the number of active cases in Dharavi rose to 101. It is after a gap of more than a month that the number of active cases in the slum-dominated area has crossed the 100-mark, the officer said.
Dharavi, spread over 2.5 lakh square kilometres, has a population of more than 6.5 lakh.
The Maharashtra government has told the Bombay High Court that opening of religious places, even with guidelines, was not a "practical" solution and it had decided against it till the Covid-19 situation improved.
The state government was responding to a public interest Litigation filed by a local NGO seeking direction that temples in the state be opened for worshippers. The petitioner's counsel Dipesh Siroya had urged the court to direct the state to reopen temples albeit with restrictions such as limiting the number of worshippers at a time. Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni on Tuesday told a bench headed by Justice Amjad Sayed that while the state had given the suggestion a thought, it had decided against reopening temples and other places of worship.
"The state contemplated but decided it is not feasible to open places of worship as yet because of the rising cases of coronavirus," Kumbhakoni said. The state also filed an affidavit in the high court on Monday, informing about its decision.
For the first time in more than three months, the novel coronavirus numbers in Maharashtra have now started to grow at a faster rate than the country as a whole. The daily growth rate (seven-day compounded rate) in Maharashtra has gone up to 2.21 per cent, while at the national level this has remained at 2.14 per cent.
The increase in daily growth rate has been the result of big jump in the number of daily detection of new cases in Maharashtra in the last three weeks. From a level of about 10,000 to 12,000 cases per day, Maharashtra has beginning to report more than 20,000 cases now. Maharashtra has been the main driver for the surge in national numbers as well. In the last two weeks, India has begun to report more than 75,000 cases per day, even reaching 90,000 cases over the past weekend. Read Amitabh Sinha' explainer here
Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has been made the chief spokesperson of the Shiv Sena. The party announcement this in a statement today. Raut is also the executive editor 'Saamana', the party's mouthpiece. Two days ago, Raut had demanded Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut apologise for her comments against Mumbai and Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, Congress legislator Ashok (Bhai) Jagtap moved a breach of privilege motion against Ranaut in Legislative Council today for defaming Mumbai.
On Monday, the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection in Pune reached the two-lakh mark. The infection count in Pune (2.03 lakh) is not just more than any other city, including Delhi (1.93 lakh) or Mumbai (1.57 lakh), but is even more than every state except the five with the highest caseload. What explains Pune’s high Covid-19 count? Amitabh Sinha, Anuradha Mascarenhas and Ajay Jadhav explain
Proceedings of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly are underway. Shiv Sena has moved a Privilege Motion against Republic TV's Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for making objectionable remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik moved the motion, alleging that Goswami had violated the freedom of expression and made uncharitable remarks against the Chief Minister. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab, also from the Shiv Sena, supports the motion amid sloganeering from the BJP in opposition of the motion. Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, the presiding authority, rules that "action as per legislative rules" be taken on the Shiv Sena MLA's proposal. The Vidhan Sabha has been adjourned for ten minutes amid din over the issue.
Sandeep A Ashar reports
Mumbai detected 1,788 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, taking the city’s Covid-19 tally to 1,57,410. With 31 deaths, the toll increased to 7,897. The city’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it would increase the number of tests it conducts daily from around 7,500 to between 11,000-14,000. The BMC chief said 85 per cent of the tests would be RT-PCR while the remaining would be Rapid Antigen test.
Good morning and welcome to our live blog on the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra. The number of novel coronavirus cases in the state rose to 9,23,641 on Monday after an additional 16,429 infections were detected. With 423 deaths, the toll rose to 27,027. Follow the blog through the day for the latest news and updates.