Maharashtra Coronavirus Live Updates: Pimpri-Chinchwad corporator succumbs to virus; 2 private hospitals fined Rs 1 lakh

A penalty of Rs 1 lakh each was imposed on two private hospitals in Navi Mumbai for allegedly violating the coronavirus protocols and treating patients without authorisation, PTI reported. Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation spokesperson Mahendra Konde said Criti Care ICU & Super Speciality Hospital in Airoli and Global 5 Health Care (Kunnure Hospital) in Vashi were issued show-cause notices on September 19, but they did not reply to it in the specified period. Taking serious note of it, NMMC Commissioner Abhijit Bhangar imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each on the hospitals in an order issued on Friday, he added.

After a month-long battle, Laxman Unde, a first-time BJP corporator in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), succumbed to coronavirus disease at the Aditya Birla Hospital on Saturday. He was 56 and is survived by his mother, wife and two children. Unde, who served in the Army for 20 years, is credited with setting up the Sainik Bhavan in Dighi for former defence personnel. A hospital spokesperson said Unde was also suffering from hypertension and died of multi-organ failure. “The cause of death is acute hypoximic respiratory failure. He had suffered acute kidney injury and was on dialysis. He had developed fungal sepsis and had Covid-19 pneumonitis,” said the spokesperson.

A 33-year-old woman, who had gone missing from the jumbo Covid facility in Pune earlier this month, was found in Pirangut on Saturday and reunited with her family. Her family members, however, maintained that questions about alleged negligence on the part of the facility need to be answered. The woman was admitted to the facility on August 29, after she tested positive for the infection. While authorities have claimed that she was discharged on September 5, her family members have said that they found out she was missing only on September 13, when they were asked to come pick her up from the facility. They subsequently approached the police and filed a missing complaint. It was not immediately clear as to why the woman did not contact her family or go home after her discharge from the facility. Both her family members and police said they would take some time before asking the woman exact details of her discharge and her whereabouts thereafter. 

To clear the extra rush of essential services workers, the Western Railway has decided to run six additional local trains services from September 28. Of these, two will be reserved for women commuters. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, both the WR and Central Railway divisions are not operating local trains to its full capacity. While WR runs 500 services each day, CR operates 423 services daily.

‘A day at the market’ may be a common English elocution assignment at school, but for Vaishali Waghere, a class XII graduate farmer’s wife from Pimpri Chinchwad whose children study in an English-medium school, this is like stepping into the shoes of Shashi Godbole, essayed by the late Sridevi, in filmmaker Gauri Shinde’s debut English Vinglish (2012). The 39-year-old housewife has been learning spoken English since the last month through a specially designed online learning course for mothers. “I want to speak English as fluently as I speak Marathi,” said Waghere, who recounts how she would enjoy learning in school and junior college but couldn’t continue her education further. “I studied in a state-run Marathi-medium school. My children go to a CBSE school. They speak good English. I’d often feel left out of their conversation as I did not know the language. I couldn’t help much with their school homework either,” Waghere added. Click here to read more.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday asked the district collectors of Marathwada, North Maharashtra and Vidarbha regions to increase Covid-19 tests and strictly collect fines from those who do not wear face masks. Thackeray reviewed the Covid-19 situation in the three regions through a video-conference with the guardian ministers and senior bureaucrats from Mantralaya. On Friday, Thackeray had reviewed the novel coronavirus situation in Konkan and Pune regions. The review meets come two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the chief ministers of seven states to focus on the districts that have a large number of infection cases. During the video-conference, Thackeray had informed Modi that the state was aiming to conduct 1.5 lakh Covid-19 tests daily. On Saturday, Thackeray said the RT-PCR tests conducted in some of the districts in Marathwada, North Maharashtra and Vidarbha regions were below the state’s daily average of 80,000 tests. “So, the number of RT-PCR tests needs to be increased in all these regions,” the CM said. He also said efforts would be taken to make the state most health literate rate in the country.

As many as 351 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while seven patients died of the infection in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, an official said on Saturday. With the addition of fresh infections, the case count in the district has reached 32,440, the official said. At least seven patients succumbed to the infection Friday night, taking the death toll to 900, he said. As many as 351 patients were discharged from various treatment facilities, which took the number of recoveries to 25,405, the official said. Meanwhile, district collector Sunil Chavan said maximum number of deceased patients in the district were above the age of 45.

The coronavirus tally in Thane district reached 1,67,013 with the addition of 1,670 cases, an official said on Saturday, PTI reported. The new cases were reported on Friday. The death toll in the district grew to 4,302 as 33 persons succumbed to the infection on Friday, he said. Bhiwandi, Ambarnath and Badlapur civic bodies in the district did not report a single death on Friday, the official said.

A sero-survey conducted on the employees of a research institution in the city and their families has found that 7 per cent of volunteers have developed antibodies against Covid-19. Recently, 339 volunteers – scientists, research students and administrative staff of CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) and CSIR-Unit for Research and Development of Information Products (URDIP), along with their family members, had participated in this sero-survey, the results of which were released on Friday. According to the results, samples of 24 persons showed presence of antibodies for Covid-19. Among them were 18 males and six females. They included nine staff, five students and seven family members. Click here to read more.

Even as the district hospital in Aundh emerged as the second government-run facility with the highest death rate of around 10 per cent, the district administration said there were at least 111 smaller hospitals in rural areas of Pune district that had not even reported a single death of a Covid-19 patient. “There are 122 small and big hospitals in rural areas. Except for two to three hospitals, others are smaller. Of these 122 hospitals, which are dedicated Covid facilities, 111 have not reported a single death in the last six months. Only 11 hospitals have reported deaths so far,” said Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad, who is the executive chairperson of the district health society. Prasad said in rural areas, deaths were higher in Rui hospital (Baramati), Saswad, and Narayangaon. “Most hospitals in rural areas are small with less than 50 beds or 10 to 15 beds,” he said. Click here to read more. 

Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut on Friday questioned the timing of the Bihar elections amid the prevailing coronavirus situation in the country. He also attacked the BJP-led Centre and the JD(U) government in Bihar for politicising the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput ahead of the Assembly polls. “The parliament session was curtailed due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation. Is the coronavirus pandemic over in Bihar? Is this the right situation to hold the polls?” asked Raut, Sena’s chief spokesperson, while speaking to the media persons. Raut’s statement came soon after the Election Commission on Friday announced that the Bihar Assembly elections will be held in three phases — on October 28, November 3 and November 7, and the counting of the votes will take place on November 10.

Maharashtra on Friday exempted persons with disabilities (PwDs) employed by state government from having to go to their workplaces during the pandemic. An order issued by the state’s Social Justice and Special Assistance Department stated that the exemption will remain in force until full restoration of public transport facilities. Under the guidelines of Mission Begin Again, the Thackeray-led government had made 100 per cent attendance mandatory for Class A and Class B employees from September 1 onwards in government offices, prior to which it was only 15 per cent.

With a gradual spike in daily Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai, the waiting time at major cremation centres, like the Shivaji Park crematorium, has increased substantially.Over the last few days, the number of people dying due to the virus in Mumbai has increased from an average of 30 to 35 to 40 to 50 a day. This has meant a longer wait at most crematoriums with the relatives and friends of the deceased having to wait for up to six hours to perform the last rites of their loved ones. Till June, Mumbai was recording around 100 to 150 Covid-19 deaths per day. By August, the daily count had come down, but it has started rising again from September 1. Click here to read more.

As the spread of coronavirus disease continues unabated in the state, especially in rural areas, district collectors in Maharashtra are increasingly relying on ‘janata curfews’ to break the chain of transmission. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his reservations about short and local lockdowns being observed in several states, and asked them to evaluate their usefulness as well as the adverse impact they have on economic activities. Janata curfew calls by the administration are different from earlier orders of lockdowns as the former are “voluntary”, at least on paper. As local residents and traders are largely opposed to strict lockdowns that were being imposed and enforced by the administration, ‘voluntary’ janata curfews are proving to be a viable alternative.

With 416 deaths in a single day, the coronavirus fatality count in Maharashtra mounted to 34,761 on Friday, the state health department announced. The overall tally also zoomed past 13,00,757 with over 17,000 fresh cases registered during the same period. Follow our live blog for all the latest updates.