Maharashtra Covid-19 news live: Govt must impose complete lockdown for three weeks, says minister

A number of private hospitals in Nashik are facing shortage of oxygen, bringing uncertainty and also forcing some Covid-19 patients to go to another hospital. One such incident occurred at a 25-bed private hospital near Nasardi Bridge on the Nashik-Pune road on Wednesday when the hospital sounded an alert among patients about shortage of oxygen supply from producers around 9 am. “The oxygen supply is erratic. I did not want to endanger the lives of five patients who were on ventilators. Hence, I pointed out the issue to them around 9am. I also told them that oxygen supply could also be restored. However, one patient chose to shift to some other private hospital,” said Avinash Andhale, the owner of the hospital. The hospital got the additional supply of oxygen by 11 and the situation was normal for now. “None of us can assure anything related to oxygen at this point,” he said.

Maharashtra sought 1,200 more ventilators and repairing of some given earlier to make them operational again. As on Thursday, 40% of ventilator beds in the state were occupied. Thackeray also asked the DCGI to curb the misuse of anti-viral injection Remdesivir and stop its export. “As of today, 50-60,000 vials of injections are being used (for treatment), which will go up to 1 lakh in the next few days,” said Thackeray

A record 120 deaths were reported in Vidarbha region on Thursday, along with highest-ever 10,565 new cases from the 11 districts. The region reported 10,000+ cases for the second day in a row, but the recoveries count, which had already been less than the new cases, went down to 5,857 on Thursday. As the difference in new cases and recoveries widened, the number of under-treatment patients swelled beyond 81,000 on Thursday. The recovery rate went below 84% once again. READ MORE HERE

Of the 5,573 Covid19 deaths recorded in Nagpur till Thursday, 893 are of people not residents of Nagpur district. This is more than 16% of the total death toll. Deaths listed under the ‘other’ category has pushed up the case fatality rate to 2.14%. Minus the other patients, it would have been 1.80%. Moreover, the fatality rate of such patients is more than 83%. More alarming is that 90% of them died the day they reached Nagpur or within 48 hours of their admission. READ MORE HERE

Several vaccination centres across Mumbai, including a jumbo Covid-19 facility in business district BKC, suspended inoculation on Friday morning due to a shortage of doses, BMC sources said. The remaining centres are likely to suspend the vaccination drive by afternoon or evening as the available stock is fast depleting, according to the sources. Meanwhile, Mumbai is expected to get up to 1.80 lakh fresh doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) executive health officer Mangala Gomare told PTI.

A 22-year-man was caught with a dozen vials of Remdesivir, a key medicine in treatment of coronavirus, here, police said on Friday. The man, Sarfaraz Hussain, was caught by the crime branch with the injections at Andheri (East) on Thursday evening, an official said. On Thursday, the Maharashtra government capped the price of Remdesivir between Rs 1,100 and Rs 1,400 per vial and warned against its hoarding and black marketing. (PTI)

"There are several vaccination centres that have zero vaccines now and vaccination has stopped there...I have come to know that some 76,000 to 1 Lakh doses are about to reach Mumbai by today but I don't have any official info on this," said Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar.

Case registered against at least 50 traders at Vishrambaug police station in Pune for violating Covid guidelines during their yesterday's protest against restrictions imposed by state government, in view of rising Covid cases, reports ANI.

With the addition of5,167 new coronavirus cases, the infection count in the Thane district of Maharashtra rose to 3,61,434, an official said on Friday. The fresh cases were reported on Thursday. As the virus claimed the lives of 18 more persons, the death toll in the district increased to 6,638, he said.

In what is being described as ‘Qayamat ki raat’ by those out there looking for beds in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, a youth drove his 55-year-old Covid positive father around 460km in a basic life support (BLS) ambulance to Warangal in neighbouring Telangana state after he realized there was no way they could find a bed in Nagpur. A vegetable vendor and a resident of New Bidipeth, the Covid patient’s oxygen saturation level had drastically depleted. He had deep lung infection and immediately required ventilator bed, which was not available in the city since Wednesday morning. READ MORE HERE

Variants of SARS-CoV-2 are behind the second wave in Maharashtra, said Dr Giridhara R Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India, in an interview with Malathy Iyer. And, if steps such as identifying the mutation, banning gatherings of more than 10 or imposing restrictive measures such as local ‘lockdowns’ are not implemented soon in the rest of India, then the ‘Maharashtra problem’ could be repeated elsewhere. Excerpts...

A day after Union health minister Harsh Vardhan hit out at some states, especially Maharashtra, over vaccine shortage, state public health minister Rajesh Tope questioned the Centre’s discrimination against Maharashtra by allotting it fewer vaccine doses compared to other states. Tope said that on Wednesday, the Centre had allotted only 7.4 lakh additional doses for the state though it is leading in the vaccination drive in a bid to control the second wave. After speaking with Harsh Vardhan on Thursday, it was revised to 17.4 lakh doses. “Maharashtra has been allotted 17.4 lakh doses, while UP will get 48 lakh, 40 lakh will go to MP, 30 lakh to Gujarat and 24 lakh to Harayana. Why is there discrimination against Maharashtra?” asked Tope. READ MORE HERE

After a rush triggered by fears of vaccine shortage, the city inoculated 56,909 people. Among them was Sunita Ahire, a resident of Gundavali in Andheri. But she had to wait three hours in the scorching sun with hundreds of others to enter the SevenHills Hospital building from the compound. “We watched in the news that the vaccine was getting over, so we rushed here,” she said. But Marol resident Dicky Alphonso (45) had to return without a shot as Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri, ran out by 1pm. “Many were sent back from Sion hospital due to unavailability of vaccines. This should not happen to old people who are putting themselves at risk by stepping out of their homes in a pandemic,” said Congress corporator Ravi Raja. READ FULL STORY

The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has decided to keep all inoculation centres in its limits closed on Friday due to a shortage of doses, though the district registered vaccination of 54,059 beneficiaries on Thursday amid limited stock of shots and early closure of many session sites. READ MORE HERE