Maharashtra Covid lockdown news live: Grocers can deliver home from 7am to 8pm

With the number of fresh COVID-19 cases surging on a daily basis, the Maharashtra Emergency Medical Services in Pune has been receiving over 9,000 calls per day for ambulances. Control Room Manager Dr Pravin Sadhale told ANI, "We take 9,000-10,000 calls per day, including Covid emergencies and others. Panic has increased now." The Manager added that around 937 ambulances are placed across Maharashtra. The ambulances have all the safety gears including PPE kits for shifting the patients.

However, home delivery from these shops has been allowed from 7am to 8pm, and local bodies have been given the authority to change home delivery timings. These restrictions came into force from 8pm on Tuesday and will be in force till 7pm on May 1.

District officials on Tuesday heaved a sigh of relief following the arrival of 1.1 lakh new Covishield doses. The consignment arrived just in time to replenish the region’s fast-depleting vaccine stockpile. The district was left with just over 19,000 doses of the vaccine. From Tuesday’s batch, Pune rural administration was allotted 55,000 doses. Pune city was given 35,000 doses and 20,000 shots were set aside for vaccination sites in Pimpri Chinchwad. Officials from the health department said they only got Covishield and not Covaxin. Limited vaccine availability was cited as the key reason for the sharp drop in coverage on Tuesday. Only 37,115 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the district, compared to the 58,228 people who got their jabs on Monday.

Home delivery of alcohol started in Pune on Tuesday following an official notification issued in this regard by the state government. Many wine shops in Pune began delivering liquor to consumers on Tuesday under a strict SOP, sources from Pune District Wine Merchants Association said. A source from the association told TOI, “On April 14, the PMC and PCMC had allowed home delivery of liquor by wine shops in their jurisdiction. However, those who tried to home deliver after that faced some issues from the police. The excise department then asked liquor vends to wait for a formal order by the district collector. On Tuesday, the Pune district administration gave a go ahead to liquor home delivery from wine shops after state government gave its nod via a notification on the same day.”

Housing societies have called out the “impracticality” of providing personal protection equipment (PPE) kits to private security guards in micro-containment zones, considering their shrinking coffers and rising heat. They have also demanded their proper representation in the state government orders concerning them. As per the recent state orders, any co-operative housing society with more than five Covid cases will be declared as a micro-containment zone. Such housing societies will have to provide PPE kits to their private security guards to allow their movement, failure of which will attract “exemplary fines”. READ MORE HERE

A 51-year-old senior medical officer from Sewri TB hospital died with Covid-19 late on Monday, around 36 hours after posting her parting words on Facebook, reports Sumitra Deb Roy. Dr Manisha Jadhav (in pic), fondly remembered for her efficient juggling of clinical and administrative roles, became the first doctor from the civic health setup to die of the infection. According to the Indian Medical Association, nearly 18,000 doctors have contracted Covid and 168 have died in the state since last March, but few have been adequately compensated. On Sunday, Jadhav wrote a Facebook post from her ICU bed saying this could be her last greeting. “May be last Good Morning. I may not meet you here on this platform. Take care all. Body dies. Soul doesn’t. Soul is immortal,” she wrote. READ MORE

Housing minister Jeetendra Awhad was the first to demand action against Kale, who was followed by urban development minister Eknath Shinde and skill development minister Nawab Malik. Sensing the mood of the cabinet members, Thackeray stepped in and declared that Kale would be transferred immediately. “Awhad had briefed him on the movement of remdesivir in Maharashtra. He had even given him the addresses where it might be stored, but he did not act,’’ a cabinet member said. The minister said that another issue that was raised was that Kale did not take note of the large hoardings put up by a former legislator declaring his plan to distribute remdesivir to the public in the region comprising Jalgaon, Nandurbar and Dhule.

CM Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday shunted out Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Abhimanyu Kale after over half a dozen cabinet members demanded action against him for his “inept” handling of the controversy over remdesivir supply and distribution in the state, saying he failed to act despite specific information on stocks, reports Prafulla Marpakwar. Kale was appointed commissioner on October 20. Special commissioner (sales tax) Parimal Singh will succeed him.

Maharashtra will import vaccines from other countries and funds will be diverted from all the departments to carry out an extensive inoculation drive on the lines of the UK, the state government said on Tuesday. The state is worst-affected by the coronavirus pandemic in the country with more than 50,000 cases being reported daily in the last two weeks. Welcoming the Union government's decision to vaccinate the entire adult population of the country, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said the state cabinet on Tuesday decided to carry out an "exemplary vaccination drive".

Over 1.26 crore people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Maharashtra so far, an official said on Tuesday. Data released by the state government revealed that 3,56,124 people were vaccinated on Monday, which included 4,130 health care workers who received the first dose and 6,876 who were administered the second dose. A total of 19,298 frontline workers received their first dose and 9,767 received the second dose on Monday, it added. It said 2,38,191 people above 45 years of age received their first dose and 77,862 got the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 on Monday.

Nearly 10 months after Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) received approval from the state government to set up a Biological Safety Level (BSL) III laboratory to test samples for Covid-19, the project is moving at a nail’s pace. The SPPU has now started working on the laboratory operation on war footing and according to vice-chancellor, Nitin Karmalkar, the testing will begin in 10 days. The university has revamped an existing laboratory facility and converted it to the BSL III lab requirements. It is now waiting for the experts’ committee to see the mandatory compliance. READ MORE HERE

The district on Tuesday received 3,000 new vials of remdesivir. Officials said daily supply to the region will now increase from Wednesday (April 21). "The shortage of remdesivir will start fading out as supply slowly improves. The daily allocation is expected to increase," said Shyam Pratapwar, assistant commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pune branch. Pune district has received a total of 85,000 vials of the antiviral injection since April 1. But supply has been very irregular. READ MORE

The enhanced lockdown-like restrictions in Maharashtra could impact the state’s economy by up to 1.5% if these curbs continued for about a month, industry observers said. The observers, however, said the overall impact would be softer than last year’s economic impacts following a total lockdown. READ FULL STORY HERE

Maharashtra government has imposed statewide restrictions till May 1 in the wake of the Covid-19 situation. Section 144 imposed across the state.

The district on Tuesday grappled for oxygen supply with the administration stating that the requirement has increased from the usual 350 tonnes a day to 386 tonnes. Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao told TOI that the situation was “very difficult” and supply was being sought from Visakhapatnam or Coimbatore by rail route. “We are in an extreme state of fire fighting and exploring all options,” he said, adding that the administration was considering a green corridor to get these supply. READ MORE HERE

Groceries, vegetable and fruit vendors and all types of food sellers in the city were forced to shut their shops at 11am by police on Tuesday even before the state government issued an official order restricting business hours for such outlets to four hours from 7am, retailers said. Most of the retailers said the police on patrolling duty began forcibly shutting the outlets, including grocery stores, sweet shops, vegetable and fruit vendors, from 11am in several areas of the city, though the revised operation timings were to be enforced from 6pm. READ MORE HERE

A day after the Centre announced vaccination for all above 18 years of age, the drive remained badly hit in the city due to vaccine stockouts. On Tuesday, 49 of the city’s 129 vaccination centres remained shut due to unavailability of vaccines. Some of the major public vaccination centres such as BKC jumbo and Mulund jumbo had to shut their gates after vaccines ran out in a few hours. Of the 49 centres that could not vaccinate, 38 were private, six BMC and five state centres. Dr Mangala Gomare, BMC executive health officer, said the city had received 1.1 lakh doses on Tuesday but these would mainly be distributed among the public centres doing free vaccination. READ FULL STORY

Maharashtra is likely to face a strict lockdown for 15 days as Covid-19 cases in the state have continue to surge despite strict restrictions for a week. A demand for a complete lockdown was made by most ministers in the state cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is likely to make an official announcement by addressing the state on Wednesday. READ MORE HERE

We take 9,000-10,000 calls per day, including Covid emergencies & others. Panic has increased now. Call flow revolves more around Covid, said control room manager.