Maharashtra Covid lockdown news live: 20 patients escape from Covid care centre in Yavatmal

Satara district has the highest number of active patients and the total number of Covid cases among the four districts of western Maharashtra. The district has had a total of 89,654 cases so far, including 2,290 Covid-related deaths. It now has 15,094 active cases. Talukas like Khatav, Koregaon and Phaltan in Satara district, where fewer cases were reported last year, are now recording a higher number of cases. The local administration has identified around 100 villages, where about 5,500 cases have been found in the current month.

Twenty Covid-19 patients have escaped from a care centre in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, officials said on Sunday.The incident took place on Saturday at the Covid-19 care centre set up at a students' hostel in Ghatanji taluka, local health officer Dr Sanjay Puram said. Based on a complaint lodged by health officials, the Ghatanji police have registered an FIR against the 20 patients under relevant sections, he said. Puram said a Covid-19 testing camp was organised on Friday at Amdi village in the district. Later, 19 village residents who tested positive for the disease were admitted to the Covid-19 care centre at Ghatanji. (PTI)

Private hospitals and home-isolated patients once again had a tough time from early Saturday morning until late in the afternoon as oxygen production and refilling came to a halt at the MIDC-based Jubilee Plant from where the city is getting over 1,000 jumbo cylinders. The operation was restored by the afternoon while the district received around 169 metric tonnes of supply from different sources which helped tide over the day’s crisis. Three cryogenic tankers from Oxygen Express, one 38 metric tonne tanker from Rourkela and another 30 metric tonne tanker from steel plants were among the supply the district received. The district’s requirement was 185 metric tonne while all sources ramped up the O2 availability to 169 metric tonnes.

Following alleged failure of authorities to increase beds despite repeated directives from the government, the district is probably facing a shortage of over 6,500 beds for Covid-19 positive patients. Till date, the authorities here have failed to provide beds as suggested by the government a month ago. Due to spike in cases, the number of active positive patients surged to 75,002 in the district on Saturday. As per guidelines issued a few times in the last one year while giving projection of cases, the government had stated 20% of total active positive patients will require beds with oxygen, in ICU and with ventilators.

Thane has reported 5,192 new cases of coronavirus, raising the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 4,46,376, an official said on Sunday.Besides these new cases reported on Saturday, the virus also claimed the lives of 46 more people, pushing the death toll in the district to 7,232, he said. The Covid-19 mortality rate in Thane is 1.62 per cent, he added. The details of recovered and under-treatment patients were not provided by the district administration. (PTI)

Concerned over shortage of essential medicines like Remdesvir, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court asked doctors, particularly private practitioners, not to indiscriminately prescribe it to Covid-19 patients. “The World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines state that this drug being not a remedy but only an investigation tool must not be injudiciously prescribed and indiscriminately used. We hope that the medical fraternity will give respect to the Maharashtra government’s standard operating procedure and WHO’s opinion,” a division bench comprising justices Sunil Shukre and Shreeram Modak said.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Central government approved the supply of 4,35,000 vials of Remdesivir to the state. Office of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in a tweet said, "The Central Government today has approved a supply of 4,35,000 vials of Remdesivir to Maharashtra till April 30th. CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has thanked the Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi for accepting his request." (ANI)

The Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) continued to add less than 10,000 Covid-19 cases for the third day on Saturday, while its death toll climbed to its highest (138) in the last 24 hours. Besides, as many as 8,853 patients recovered in the region, taking its total discharges above 6.68 lakh.

The district rural police have adopted a new strategy to prevent people from stepping out of their homes without valid reason — subjecting them to rapid antigen tests. The rural police on Friday made over 125 people undergo the test with the help of Baramati tehsil administration and found 12 people Covid positive.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday said the state government would float a global tender for Covid-19 vaccines and remdesivir injections.“A five member-committee, headed by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and comprising key officials from the health, medical education and industry departments, would oversee the global tendering process,” Ajit Pawar told reporters after holding the weekly Covid review meeting with the district administration officials and elected representatives at the Council Hall in the city.

Daily Covid-19 cases in Mumbai have dropped below 6,000 for the first time this month. After registering a high of 11,206 cases on April 4, the daily case count in Mumbai dropped to 5,867. The drop could be the result of fewer daily tests conducted on Friday and Saturday — 39,584 compared to 45,000 on average. The state added 67,160 cases and 676 fatalities on Saturday. The total caseload of the state stood at 42.28 lakh and the death toll in the state touched 63,928.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said on Saturday that a five-member committee led by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte had been empowered by the cabinet to take decisions on gobal tendering for Covid-19 vaccines and remdesivir without seeking any clearance.

Despite as much as 16,000 cylinders refilled each day by gas manufacturing units in the city, and another gas for 3,000 cylinders coming from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, there remains a significant shortage of medical oxygen, say hospital and industry sources. There are six oxygen manufacturing units in the city and two major refillers. There are two types of oxygen makers — bulk liquid plants and air separation units. The bulk liquid plant has a larger capacity as compared to a separation unit.