Maharashtra Covid-19 lockdown news live: Govt issues strict quarantine orders to all dists

The state circular on fresh norms to curb the Covid wave said every new positive case should be marked on a map, following which districts should immediately detect if there are clusters - more than five cases in urban and 15 cases in rural areas. A micro containment zone should be carved out with 25 or more households under surveillance with strict perimeter control.

Maharashtra and Mumbai reported their highest ever addition of Covid-19 cases in a single day on Thursday. Maharashtra added 43,183 infections and 249 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking its total caseload to 28.5 lakh and the fatalities to 54,898. This is the second day in a row that the state has added over 200 deaths. Mumbai added 8,646 cases, a significant jump from its previous high of 6,933 cases reported on March 28. Mumbai also reported 18 deaths, highest in nearly four months.

Sahadev Kawade, a 53-year-old daily wage worker, was among 27,064 beneficiaries above the age of 45 who were vaccinated in the Pune Metropolitan Region on Thursday. With a total of 57,583 jabs on a single day, the region set a new daily vaccination record surpassing last week’s best count of 38,000 jabs. Thursday was also a state record for the district. Mumbai, second in place, carried out nearly 50,000 vaccination

The state government has now demanded a weekly supply of 35 lakh vaccine doses from the Centre to increase its coverage, after the vaccination drive started for people above 45 on Thursday. On Wednesday, Maharashtra got 26.77 lakh Covishield doses, which were given to districts that have had high Covid-19 caseloads, state immunization officer Dr DN Patil said.

As Covid-19 cases continue to surge, Maharashtra, with as many as 310 active cases per million population, could face a breakdown of health systems like developed European countries experienced once their active cases crossed 110 per million, the state health department has warned the districts. Maharashtra added more than 6.5 lakh cases in March, driving a four-fold increase in active cases in a month’s time.

A 38-year-old man from the Cidco area of Nashik city, suspected of being infected with Covid-19, died at a civic-run hospital here on Thursday morning. After his family claimed that he died after failing to get a bed earlier at other hospitals, Nashik municipal commissioner Kailas Jadhav ordered a probe.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has appointed teams at 23 private hospitals in its limits to monitor bed availability and update vacant bed information on the dashboard. Read more

A 37-year-old Covid patient died hours after staging a sit-in protest outside the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) building for allegedly not being admitted by several hospitals for treatment, officials said here on Thursday.

The head of Maharashtra's Covid-19 task force Dr Sanjay Oak on Thursday said a coronavirus patient can infect 400 people, and hence, there is no alternative to masks, hygiene and social distancing.

Maharashtra, which has the single largest share in national GDP with close to 16 per cent and the worst hit with the pandemic, has fallen into the worst debt trap with fiscal deficit hitting the highest since 2005-06 at 3.3 per cent, up over 175 per cent, according to a report.

At a time when Maharashtra is witnessing a rise in Covid-19 cases, at least 27 ventilators at a government-run medical college and hospital in Ambejogai of Beed district have stopped functioning, an official said on Thursday.

As the third phase of the vaccination drive started in Pune on Thursday, the Mayor of the city took the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Pune district is aiming to vaccinate 1 lakh people today with an equal share of recipients from Pune city, Pimpri-Chinchwad city and rural Pune. A campaign is being run since Wednesday for the same and the administration is geared up to achieve the target.

Amid a debate over the imposition of a lockdown or stricter restrictions in Maharashtra amid the surge in coronavirus cases, the curbs in Nagpur, in place till March 31, will not be extended further. The number of beneficiaries who have received the Covid-19 vaccine so far has reached 60,29,649, the government said on Wednesday. Maharashtra on Wednesday reported as many as 39,544 new coronavirus cases, its second-highest single-day rise in infection tally since the pandemic began, a health official said. With this, the state’s cumulative caseload mounted to 28,12,980. On Wednesday, the state reported the deaths of 227 patients. This one-day fatality count is the highest for the state since October last year, which pushed the death toll to 54,649. State minister Nitin Raut on Wednesday said the curbs and guidelines issued by the state government will be applicable in Nagpur district. Raut, who is Nagpur district guardian minister, on Wednesday held a meeting with the local officials to assess the pandemic situation. Home minister Anil Deshmukh and BJP functionary Devendra Fadnavis attended the meeting virtually

Ahmednagar district has replaced Jalgaon to make it to the list of top-10 Covid-affected districts in the counrty. On March 12, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said that Jalgaon was one of the 10 most Covid-affected districts across the country, but on Tuesday he announced the new list with Ahmednagar making an entry. Jalgaon has been excluded from the list, while Nashik is still on it. The situation in Ahmednagar is looking grim as the district has started to add over 1,100 new cases on a daily basis for the past four days. The big difference is the positivity rate of the patients in district. While the positivity rate of Ahmednagar stood at 19% that of Jalgaon was 11.9 per cent. “Around 2,000 people are being tested on a daily basis in Ahmednagar, but this is now being increased as per directions from district collector Rajendra Bhosle,” Sanjeev Belambe, resident medical officer at Ahmednagar Civil Hospital, said.

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.