Maharashtra Covid-19 lockdown news live: Restrictions withdrawn in Nagpur; Pune mayor takes his first dose of vaccine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to enquire about Rashmi Thackeray’s health and wished her for early recovery.

Online hall tickets for students appearing in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC class XII) examinations will be made available online by the Divisional Board from Saturday, April 3. All Higher Secondary Schools / Junior Colleges will be able to download the hall tickets from the state board's website mahahsscboard.in using their college/school login id.

Lockdown imposed in Maharashtra's Nagpur in view of surging Covid-19 cases will not continue from April 1. "Covid-19 restrictions that were imposed by the district administration will not continue," said Dr Nitin Raut, guardian minister, Nagpur. Raut added that the guidelines issued by the state government would still be applicable. The government had imposed a lockdown in the Nagpur district from March 15 to 31 after experiencing a spike in cases. (ANI)

Palghar district on Wednesday crossed the 50,000 Covid-19 cases mark, even as the administration lifted a ban on weddings post April 15. With rising cases, district collector Dr Manik Gursal had in a March 26 order imposed several restrictions from April 5 onwards. READ MORE

The Thane municipal corporation (TMC) has scheduled a special Covid vaccination session for inmates of old age homes in the city. As many as 125 senior citizens, including a few mentally-challenged, have already been vaccinated till now, said municipal officials, adding that a few more are scheduled to get the jab soon. READ MORE

The rush seen at the city’s five prominent private Covid hospitals — which has been leading to unavailability of the beds there — is conspicuously missing at the smaller private Covid hospitals here. Covid beds, including those for critical patients, in the five big private hospitals are almost all occupied. But in the remaining 105 smaller private Covid hospitals, just 50% bed occupancy has been recorded despite the daily number of new positive cases rising by 1,000 to 2,000. Speaking to TOI, Nashik municipal commissioner Kailas Jadhav said the Covid patients who can afford the rates are choosing treatment at the bigger private hospitals. Moreover, many people in the city are still unaware that the smaller hospitals are also providing equally good Covid treatment. READ MORE

The Covid-19 tally in Maharashtra's Thane district has gone up to 3,19,011with the addition of 3,171 new cases of the disease,an official said on Thursday. Besides these new cases reported on Wednesday, the viral infection also claimed the lives of 19 more people, pushing the death toll in the district rose to 6,469, he said. The Covid-19 mortality rate in the district is 2.03 per cent, he said. So far, 2,81,641 patients have recuperated from the infection in the district, which reflects a recovery rate of 88.29 per cent. There are 30,901 active COVID-19 cases in Thane at present, the official said. In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 50,148, while the death toll is 1,225, another official said.

The state government slashed the rates for RTPCR, rapid antigen and antibody tests further on Wednesday. Now, getting an RT-PCR test in a hospital or a laboratory will cost Rs 600 and home collection Rs800 in Maharashtra. The public health department on Wednesday issued a notification announcing the new rates. From the initial cost of Rs4,500, the price of RT-PCR was brought down to Rs1,600 in September, Rs850 in December and now to Rs600 at a laboratory or a hospital. The home collection rate is Rs 800 now, down from Rs 2,000 in September. The rate for bulk testing has been fixed at Rs 500, a reduction from Rs 700. The revised rates for rapid antigen tests are Rs 150 in a lab or a hospital, and Rs 200 if carried out in a kiosk or a place of mass collection. An antibody test in a lab or hospital will cost Rs 250 and Rs 350 for ELISA and CLIA

The district registered 78,437 Covid-19 positive cases in March, which was higher than all the monthly figures in the year-long pandemic. The district has seen probably third-highest cases among all districts in the country in the last 31 days. The state’s public health department (PHD) said total cases in the district surged to 2,30,187 by the end of March. The 78,437 cases in March are more than Thane (59,258) and Nashik (50,732), even though these districts have higher population. Only Mumbai (88,856) and Pune (1,26,441) were ahead of the district. READ MORE HERE

After 37 days, the city will have no restrictions on any activities, excluding social, cultural, political and religious gatherings, from Thursday. Only night curfew imposed by the state government will be imposed in the city and adjoining towns. With orders of restrictions lapsing on midnight of Wednesday, guardian minister Nitin Raut held a meeting with officials in the afternoon. “All restrictions imposed by us in district will stop from April 1. Restrictions or decisions taken by the state only will be implemented here. I thank all people for supporting the restrictions to contain the spread of the disease,” Raut said. READ MORE HERE

Retailers said citizens were crowding grocery shops to stock up on essential items, such as rice, flour and pulses, following apprehensions of a lockdown because of the recent spike in Covid-19 cases. The retailers said they had witnessed such a rush when lockdown was imposed last year. Sachin Nivangune, president of the Pune District Retail Traders’ Association, said, “Ever since words started going around about a lockdown, the retailers are buying more stock of essentials and other products of use from wholesalers, fearing that a repeat of last year should not occur. People are also buying more than usual amounts of grocery items so that they do not fall short of anything in the coming days.” Nivangune said only grocery products and essentials were being bought in higher quantities. “Other businesses, like clothes, cutlery and takeaway orders in restaurants, have been affected adversely during the past few days with a significant drop in sales. This is because most people are mostly spending on essential products,” he said. READ FULL STORY HERE

It can be a case of SARS-COV-2 reinfection if a recovered person tests positive for Covid again — either via RT-PCR or antigen test — after an interval of 102 days and with one negative molecular assay in between, a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research has said. The research has been accepted for publication in the journal, Epidemiology and Infection. Dr Samiran Panda, head of ICMR’s epidemiology and communicable diseases division, said, “Genome sequencing has been an investigative criterion to confirm reinfection. But genomic evidence is resource-intensive and not always feasible. Our objective then was to develop a comprehensive, working epidemiological definition of SARS-CoV-2 re-infection.” The study used data of suspected reinfection cases from several countries, including India.

The Covid-19 vaccination drive in Pune rural has picked up pace with at least 15,000 doses being administered daily over the past one week. According to the District Health Office, 2.6 lakh beneficiaries have so far received at least dose across Pune rural — the number includes over one lakh elderly who have received their first doses. READ MORE HERE

With the Covid-19 vaccine programme expanding to cover everyone over 45 years of age from April 1, the health department has revised the district’s vaccination target for the next two months to 28 lakh beneficiaries. The previous target base was 17 lakh. Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director (medical), Pune circle, said the administration’s earlier inoculation target — before the inclusion of above-45s — was 17 lakh people by the end of April. The 17 lakh includes 15 lakh senior citizens and two lakh from the healthcare and frontline worker category. READ MORE HERE

Railway authorities on Wednesday pledged to ensure strict adherence to the Covid-19 protocols at all stations in the state following the recent spike in nCoV cases. Renu Sharma, divisional railway manager (DRM) of the Pune rail division, said, “Among the measures will be continuous announcements to alert passengers about the pandemic, temperature screenings, strict checks on social distancing and masks norms.” She said the division had no information about any lockdown in the state.