Maharashtra Covid-19 Lockdown News Live: State seeks 35 lakh doses every week to meet revised target of 5 lakh daily jabs

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.

The district administration is set to commence a central control room on the lines of NMC’s Covid dashboard amid sudden spike in positive cases. District collector Ravindra Thakare said the district-level central control room would be functional soon and extend assistance to the rural population to locate a hospital amid shortage of bed. The control room will have 10 phone lines for communications meant for receiving and relaying information related to the latest status of vacant beds in Covid hospitals across the district. Thakare said the rural population is often referred to city hospitals but mostly remain clueless regarding availability of beds

Thane district in Maharashtra reported 4,371 new cases of coronavirus, which took its infection count to 3,27,732, an official said on Saturday. These new cases were reported on Friday, he said. The death toll due to the virus grew by 15 to 6,525.

Police on Friday penalized 2,242 people in the district for not wearing face masks and recovered Rs9,19,400 in fine from them. The Pune city police caught 1,035 such people and collected a fine of Rs 4,98,900. The Pimpri Chinchwad police took action against 405 violators and collected Rs2,02,500 from them as fines. The Pune rural police penalized 802 people and collected Rs 2,18,000 as fines.

The district administration — after being criticised for allowing only registered marriages as part of its Covid guidelines — on Friday reversed the decision and granted permission for traditional marriages with an upper limit of 50 guests. Also, starting from Monday, all hotels and restaurants across Aurangabad will be allowed to cater to 50% of their operational capacity. However, they will have to shut down the establishment for dine-in by 8pm. READ MORE HERE

A senior official said the state could impose specific curbs in the eight districts like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nagpur that are leading the surge rather than taking a blanket decision for the state. “All these options are open. Lockdown may not be immediately imposed,” said a senior official.

Cautioning that health infrastructure in the state is likely to be overwhelmed in the next 15-20 days if Covid-19 cases continue the strong surge, CM Uddhav Thackeray warned he will decide on a complete lockdown in the next two days. READ MORE HERE

The district on Friday registered a new high of 4,108 Covid-19 positive cases, with recoveries at 3,214. There were 60 deaths due to Covid for the second consecutive day. The district civil surgeon (CS) said 2,857 cases were from city, 1,248 from rural (which was highest ever for rural too), and three from other districts for total of 4,108 cases on Friday. As per state’s public health department (PHD), cases were even higher at 4,201 in the district on Friday. Total number of cases surged to 2,33,776. READ MORE HERE

At a time when record number of Covid cases are being reported in Vidarbha, fatalities due to the infection are posing yet another challenge for the region. On Friday, the 11 districts in the region reported 91 deaths — highest ever in the present surge. With this, Vidarbha’s Covid toll surpassed the 9,000-mark. What is more worrisome is that the last 1,000 deaths happened in last 13 days only. Earlier to this, such spike in deaths was seen only in September, 2020, when the region had witnessed the first wave of Covid-19. READ MORE

The weeklong restrictions across the district were met with a mixture of relief and consternation in the industrial pockets of Pune. While representatives from the manufacturing and service sector were relieved that there was no blanket lockdown, they expressed some concern that the lack of public transport would affect workers and smaller companies. For a few weeks, industry associations held frequent parleys with local administration officials, exhorting them to avoid a lockdown and instead, step up vaccinations to battle the second wave of the pandemic. READ MORE HERE

Areas in the Pune Metropolitan Region are facing an acute shortage of blood, with only 40% collection taking place compared to the average demand. The stringent restrictions announced on Friday are going to cause even further problems, observed blood banks. The ban on assembly of people will create obstacles in blood collection. The blood banks and organisers have demanded that big blood donation camps be exempted from restrictions and have appealed to people to donate blood before getting vaccinated. READ MORE HERE

The weeklong restrictions across the district were met with a mixture of relief and consternation in the industrial pockets of Pune. While representatives from the manufacturing and service sector were relieved that there was no blanket lockdown, they expressed some concern that the lack of public transport would affect workers and smaller companies.

The new set of restrictions announced in parts of the state — including a seven-day closure of multiplexes in Pune — are likely to affect the release schedule of nearly 40 Bollywood films, slated to hit the screens in the coming days. Multiplexes Association of India told TOI on Friday this could affect business across India, as Maharashtra is the biggest market in India and film releases across the country depend on how state multiplexes fare.

Mall owners and traders from the city have urged the district administration to review its decision to announce stringent restrictions, including the night travel curbs and closure of malls for a week. Fatechand Ranka, president of Federation of Trade Association Pune, said, “If the deadline to close shops is 6pm, they will have to wind up much earlier to complete the day’s tally and sort the inventory. The question of availability of transport for the employees at these hours is also important. We request that the government review these issues and give us permission to operate from10am to 9pm instead.” READ MORE HERE

Members of autorickshaw and taxi unions on Friday expressed their concerns about the night time travel restrictions. “Why impose such curbs after 6pm when no lockdown has been announced? We shall appeal to the district administration to lift the 6pm restriction and allow us to ply sanitised autorickshaws,” said Nitin Pawar, the convener of the Pune Autorickshaw Association. READ MORE HERE

The seven-day restaurant closure announcement is likely to lead to mass exodus of restaurant staffers for fear of yet another period of job insecurity, said sources from Pune Restaurants and Hotel Association (PRAHA). Over the last two days, 5-10% staff at many restaurants in Pune have left for their hometown after recurrent warnings of a lockdown. A few restaurateurs had also planned a peaceful dharna outside Council Hall on Saturday. However, they were still awaiting government permission for the same at the time of filing this report. READ MORE HERE

MP Girish Bapat on Friday opposed the administration’s decision to shut eateries and restrict the use of PMPMPL buses only for essential services, besides stressing that the police should ensure that they do not beat up common people while enforcing the 6pm-to-6am travel restrictions. “The police presence on the streets should serve as a deterrence to people but they should not feel terrorised by the police,” Bapat said. Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta sought to allay fears about police excesses or undue harassment during the enforcement of restrictions. “Our intent is not to harass people. Rather, we have asked all our officers and men on ground to adopt a humane approach and understand people’s problems rather than go about mechanically with the enforcement. They will sensitise people to follow the state directives.” READ MORE HERE