Maharashtra Coronavirus Live Updates: 13,395 new cases, tally now 14,93,884

Private educational institutions running schools and their associations told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that a May 8 government resolution (GR), which restrained them from collecting increased fees for the academic year 2020-21, was invalid, as the Maharashtra government was acting beyond its authority and the restrictions put forth had no statutory backing.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish S Kulkarni was hearing a clutch of pleas filed by educational institutions, including Association of Indian Schools (which runs ICSE and CBSE-affiliated schools), Global Education Foundation, Kasegaon Education Trust and Sant Dnyaneshwar Mauli Sanstha. Read Omkar Gokhale's report

Maharashtra reported 13,395 new COVID-19 cases, taking its tally to 14,93,884 on Thursday, while a higher number of 15,575 patients were discharged following recovery. The toll rose to 39,430 after 58 more patients succumbed to the infection. A total of 15,575 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the tally of recovered people to 12,12,016. With this, the state now has 2,41,986 active cases. Mumbai city reported 2,823 positive cases during the day, which pushed its overall count to 2,22,784, while its toll rose to 9,296 with the death of 48 more patients. Pune city added 808 COVID-19 cases, raising its tally to 1,62,904, while 27 deaths took the toll to 3,689.

Mumbai's slum locality Dharavi reported eight new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily count in nearly two weeks, taking its tally to 3,300 on Thursday, the city civic body said. According to a senior BMC official, 2,820 COVID-19 patients from Dharavi have already recovered and discharged from hospitals. The densely populated slum-dominated area has only 187 active COVID-19 patients at present, the official said. (PTI)

Thane district in Maharashtra has added 1,857 new COVID-19 cases, taking its tally to 1,85,799, an official said on Thursday. The district also reported 43 deaths due to the viral infection on Wednesday, raising its toll to 4,687, he said. On Wednesday, Thane city reported 414 new COVID-19 cases, followed by Kalyan-389, Navi Mumbai-356 and Mira Bhayander-223. The remaining cases were detected in other parts of the district, the official said. Out of the total cases, Kalyan has so far reported 44,781 cases, Thane city-39,358, Navi Mumbai-39,091 and Mira Bhayander-19,788, he said.

State Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh launched the Covid Kavach App, which will help connect Covid patients discharged from hospitals and facilitate donation of plasma, at an online programme on Wednesday. The app aims to provide impetus to the Platina Plasma Project of the state government in informing users of the app about risks and best practices, analyse data as well as provide a news feed and post their queries to healthcare workers. Its features include tracking discharged patients and how a user can add more than one of his or her family members to the app. It will prove useful in collecting data of senior citizens and children who might not have access to a smartphone, said Dr Sameer Joshi, vice-dean of B J Medical College.

Maharashtra's coronavirus tally on Wednesday reached 14,80,489 with 14,578 fresh cases coming to light, a state health official said. With 355 new fatalities being reported, the death toll in the state reached 39,072, he said. But on the other hand, 16,715 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the tally of recovered patients in the state to 11,96,441. There are 2,44,527 active cases in the state now. Mumbai city reported 2,848 new cases which pushed its overall case count to 2,19,961, while death toll in the city rose to 9,248 with 46 new fatalities. Pune city added 966 cases, which took its case tally to 1,62,096, while 13 deaths took toll to 3,662. The state has so far conducted 73,24,188 coronavirus tests.

The COVID-19 tally in Nagpur district of Maharashtra rose to 84,081 on Wednesday with a single-day addition of 976 new cases, an official release said. With 22 deaths, the toll went up to 2,704, it said. The count of recoveries in the district mounted to 71,602 with 835 people getting discharged in the day, the release said. The district now has 9,775 active cases.

A Maharashtra government-appointed expert committee, set up to fix the market price of masks, has proposed ceiling prices that are well below the rates fixed by the Centre. The committee has proposed a ceiling price for an N-95 mask at Rs 19, down from Rs 135; for 3-ply meltblown mask at Rs 4, down from Rs 16; and for 2-ply mask at Rs 3, down from Rs 10. The report was submitted to the government by the four-member committee on Tuesday.

The World Bank on Wednesday praised the efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Mumbai's Dharavi, one of the world's largest slums, saying its success stemmed from a combination of “customised solutions”, community involvement and perseverance. Observing that effective approaches have tapped the skills and dedication of community members, the World Bank said that in Mumbai, city officials were able to stem the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Dharavi, one of the city's largest urban settlements, by mobilising community members and staff from private medical clinics for a strategy based on mass screening for fever and oxygen levels.

The Washington-based global lender, in its biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity report, said that in the space of three months, by July 2020, reported cases in the area had been cut to 20 per cent of their peak in May.

People in the 41-60 age group were most exposed to the coronavirus in both slums and non-slums, according to the findings of the second sero-survey in Mumbai. The overall Covid-19 sero-prevalence found in the second survey conducted jointly by the BMC, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Niti Aayog is 33.4 per cent, a fall from 40 per cent in the first survey.

Detailed findings published by TIFR show that of 1,060 people aged 41-60 years surveyed in slums, 50.3 per cent tested positive for antibodies against Covid-19, and of 964 people in same age bracket surveyed in non-slums, 18.6 per cent tested positive. This age group also steps out more for work putting them at higher risk of exposure to coronavirus.

After the 41-60 age group, people in the 12-24 age group living in gated societies and high-rises had the most exposure rates. At least 18.5 per cent tested positive for Covid antibodies, followed by those aged 25-40 (16.6 per cent exposure). Those aged above 60 years in non-slums remain most protected and least exposed. Of those aged above 60 surveyed in non-slums, 13.2 per cent had antibodies.

An attempt by a contractual employee of a COVID-19 hospital in Maharashtra's Thane to take liquor and tobacco inside the facility has been foiled at the checking gate, a civic official said on Tuesday. The incident occurred on Monday night when the night duty staff was being checked as per protocol, said Thane Municipal Corporation chief security officer M B Thorve. The employee was later handed over to Kapurbawdi police.

Six out of the eight districts in Maharashtra's Marathwada region have received more than average rainfall during the monsoon season this year, an official said. The Marathwada region comprises Aurangabad, Latur, Beed, Parbhani, Jalna, Osmanabad, Nanded and Hingoli districts. The normal rainfall expected in Marathwada between June 1 and September 30 is 722.5 mm. But, the region received 844.7 mm downpour during the period this year, 16.9 per cent more than expected, agrometeorologist Dr Kailas Dakhore, from the Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agriculture University in Parbhani, told PTI. Aurangabad, the biggest district in the region, on an average gets 623.5 mm rainfall during the monsoon, but this year, it received 951.3 mm rain, which is higher by 52.6 per cent, he said.

With single-day addition of 983 new infections, the COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra's Nashik district rose to 81,895 on Tuesday, a health official said. At least 12 persons died of the infection, taking the toll to 1,463, the official said.

Of the latest casualties, seven were reported from the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) limits and five from other parts of the district. Among the cases reported so far, 55,077 were from Nashik city, 22,371 from other parts of the district, 3,882 from Malegaon and 545 from outside the district, the official said.

As many as 983 patients were discharged from hospitals on Tuesday, raising the number of recoveries to 71,255, he added.

The COVID-19 case count in Maharashtra's Thane district rose to 1,82,776, after 1,277 more persons tested positive for the infection, a district official said on Tuesday. Apart from the latest cases detected on Monday, the district also recorded 27 casualties that took the toll to 4,616, the official said.

Currently, the recovery rate in the district stands at 88.35 per cent, while the morality rate is 2.53 per cent, he said. As many as 16,669 patients are undergoing treatment for the infection in the district, he added. Although Kalyan has recorded 44,064 COVID-19 cases so far, it has improved its recovery rate to 90.24 per cent and brought down the death rate to 1.94 per cent, the official said.

Of the latest cases, Navi Mumbai accounted for 366, followed by Thane with 284 and Kalyan with 279, he said.

At least 38,632 have so far been recorded in Thane civic limits, 44,064 in Kalyan, 38,468 in Navi Mumbai and 19,421 in Mira Bhayandar, the official said. A total of 1,029 casualties have been recorded in Thane so far, followed by 857 in Kalyan, 783 in Navi Mumbai and 598 in Mira Bhayandar, he added.

A spike in Maharashtra’s unemployment rate in August is threatening the revival of the Covid-hit economy, a government report has said. In a presentation made to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and senior ministers in a meeting on Monday, the state finance department claimed that the unemployment rate had climbed from 3.9 per cent in July to 6.2 per cent in August. According to a finance department report, the latest uptick in unemployment was due to imposition of micro lockdowns in several parts of the state, the loss of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and end of the kharif sowing season.

The Pune Railway Division will restart the Pune-Lonavala local service on a limited basis from October 12 for providers of “essential services”. Those who can avail of the service will be issued QR code-enabled passes by Pune Police, said Central Railway officials. “The timings of the service and frequency will be announced in a few days,” said Manoj Jhawar, PRO, Pune Division. According to the latest guidelines issued by the state government on September 30, operations of local trains in Pune region are now allowed in Pune region.

Pune district in Maharashtra reported 1,240 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking its total count to 2,95,251, a health official said on Monday. With 51 people succumbing to the infection, the toll mounted to 6,867, he said. A total of 917 patients were discharged after treatment in the last 24 hours. "Of the 1,240 cases, 391 cases were reported from the limits of the Pune Municipal Corporation, which now has 1,49,790 patients. 443 new cases were reported from Pimpri Chinchwad, taking the tally to 80,923," the official said, adding that the number of cases in rural, civil hospital and Pune cantonment board areas increased to 64,538.

Amravati district in Maharashtra reported 119 COVID-19 cases on Monday while the number of people who were discharged post recovery was 210, an official said. Five people died during the day and took the toll to 316. The caseload in the district is now 14,124, while the recovery rate is 83.30 per cent with 11,765 people having been discharged so far, he added. Amravati now has 2,043 active coronavirus positive cases, he said.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally rose to 14,53,653 on Monday with a single-day addition of 10,244 fresh cases, state health department said. With 263 new people succumbing to the infection, the total fatality count went up to 38,347 in the state, it said. 133 of the 263 fatalities were from the past 48 hours, while 58 deaths had occurred last week. Remaining 72 deaths were from the period before the last week. "In the process of updating figures as per the portal, all these deaths have been reported today," the department said in a statement. Of the total deaths reported on Monday, 47 were from Mumbai, while Pune city and Kolhapur district (excluding Kolhapur city) saw 21 fatalities each.