Maharashtra lockdown news live: Govt sanctions Rs 61 crore from disaster fund to tackle Covid

Not wearing masks on railway premises and in trains can attract a fine of up to Rs 500, with the national transporter now incorporating it as an offence under the Railway Act, according to an order issued on Saturday. This is the latest in a slew of measures that the railways has taken to ensure compliance of the various COVID-19 protocols issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs to restrict the spread of the virus.

Ten states and union territories, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, account for 79.32 per cent of the new coronavirus cases in the country, the Health ministry said on Saturday. It said Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 63,729. It is followed by Uttar Pradesh with 27,360, and Delhi with 19,486 fresh cases. Ten states -- Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan -- report 79.32% of the new cases, the ministry said.

The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has nearly touched 12 crores as part of the world's largest vaccination drive, the Union Health Ministry has informed on Saturday. According to the ministry, a total of 11,99,37,641 vaccine doses have been administered through 17,37,539 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 91,05,429 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 56,70,818 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 1,11,44,069 frontline workers (FLWs) (1stdose), 54,08,572 FLWs (second dose), 4,49,35,011 1st dose beneficiaries and 34,88,257 2nd dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 3,92,23,975 (firstt dose) and 9,61,510 (second dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years.

Neck-deep in Covid-care services, healthcare workers are encountering abusive arguments, rude behaviour or physical assault from patients’ relatives over the growing crisis of remdesivir, oxygen/ventilator beds, delay in test report and unreachable helplines. Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta on Friday issued orders to all police stations to provide adequate security to hospitals and healthcare staffers in view of the growing unrest among citizens over the scarcity of medical paraphernalia in the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR).

The state government on Friday sanctioned Rs 61 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund for Pune, Amaravati and Aurangabad regions for tackling pandemic Covid-19. As per an order issued by the relief and rehabilitation department, Rs 47 crore will be given for Aurangabad division, Rs eight crore for Pune division and Rs six crore for Amravati division. On utilization funds, it has been proposed to set up two jumbo covid centers in Pune, while in Amaravati and Aurangabad divisions, the funds will be utilized for strengthening health care infrastructure in Beed, Latur, Parbhani and Akola districts.

The Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic bodies have planned to shift partly recovered Covid-19 patients from jumbo hospitals to makeshift observation facilities that will be set up at hostels and other such facilities. The move is aimed at freeing up beds for needy patients at the jumbo facilities. Over 60 patients from the jumbo hospital at College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP), have been shifted to the Co-EP hostel.

Authorities in Aurangabad and Hingoli districts have started carrying out antigen tests on people stepping out without any valid reason. The drive launched on Friday caught many by surprise. Some of those caught were left fuming for forcefully being made to undergo the antigen tests. AMC health officer Dr Neeta Padalkar told TOI, “On day one of the drive, our teams carried out antigen tests on 161 people at 15 different spots for stepping out of home without valid reason. Out of those tested, three have tested positive and have been sent to covid care centre.”

Justifying the night curfew from 6pm to 7am in Pune on weekdays while the rest of the state followed 8pm to 7am deadline and the weekend lockdown, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday stressed that it was needed for the district and that the issue should not be politicised because the decision was taken after consensus with all stakeholders. The curfew timing had set off a debate on why Pune was being singled out for extra two hours of restrictions as against the state government’s orders issued under Break the Chain, released on April 13 by state chief secretary Sitaram Kunte.

Parel-based Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited will take at least a year to roll out the first batches of the Covid-19 vaccine, although the Centre has given it an expected timeline of six months. The Centre on Friday assured grants to the tune of Rs 65 crore, while the state has already earmarked Rs 150 crore to build the facility. To begin with, a new biosafety level-3 facility will be erected within the Parel campus to manufacture the vaccine. Dr Sandeep Rathod, managing director of Haffkine biopharma, told TOI on Friday that the plant will have a capacity to produce 22.8 crore doses annually. “From now on, we will take at least one year to start manufacturing, but we will try to expedite,” he said.

Vaccine stocks are fast depleting in the city, leaving the Pune municipal authorities with just enough Covishield doses to last till Saturday afternoon. There are currently minimal doses left at PMC’s Narayan Peth vaccine store. Around 11,000-20,000 Covishield doses were being administered in the PMC limits during the last few days. The total vaccine balance in Pune district was 1.24 lakh doses (Covishield and Covaxin) by April 15 night, and the district needs over 4 lakh doses for the next five days, health department’s official data showed, with officials saying that no new vaccine stock arrived on Friday.

The four cities with the highest number of fresh cases per million population over the last month are all in Maharashtra. Nashik at the top is followed by Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai, in that order. Sandwiched between these cities and Delhi (at no. 9) are Lucknow, Bangalore, Bhopal and Indore, with Patna rounding off the top 10. In absolute numbers, Mumbai has added 3.7 lakh cases between March 16 and April 15, much higher than any other city, while Delhi seems like it is the next worst hit. Absolute numbers, however, can give a misleading picture as cities with much bigger populations would tend to have more cases.

The state government has finally decided to relax the fortnightly random RTPCR tests it had mandated for household helps, hotel and restaurant staffers, industrial workers and e-commerce delivery persons in the wake of the strain the decision had put on the laboratories. State relief and rehabilitation secretary Aseem Kumar Gupta told TOI on Friday that the new orders issued by the state government did not suggest the 15-day random RT-PCR tests for the workers.