Maharashtra News Live Updates: State reports 4,408 news Covid-19 cases, 116 deaths

For the second day in a row, Maharashtra reported under 4,500 cases, and the city registered less than 200 cases. The city also reported two deaths, the lowest since March 2, this year. The state added 116 deaths. With this, the total caseload of the state crossed the 64 lakh-mark on Tuesday and the deaths stood at 1,35,255. The total caseload in Mumbai rose to 7,39,722 and the deaths touched 15,925. Full story here

Maharashtra health officials say nearly 85,010 self-test kits have been used in the state from June to mid-August for the confirmation of Covid positivity. The data on the use of the Mylab test kits (Coviself) were uploaded on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) web portal, as the company was considered as a laboratory and mandated the task of records update, like other laboratories. “Of the people who used the self-test kits in the state, 3,656 users (4.2%) tested Covid positive and the local authorities took follow-up actions through the ICMR portal,” a senior state health official said on Tuesday. Full story here

A woman (19) from Ambegaon taluka was found dead with injury marks on her face, ears and hands in a well at a farm on Monday evening.“The woman was missing since Monday morning. Local residents had initially suspected that a leopard might have attacked her because the injury marks on her body looked similar to the bite marks of some wild animals. But a post-mortem at the Sassoon General Hospital confirmed that the injuries were not caused by any animal,” said Balwant Mandge, inspector of the Machar police. Full story here

The number of applicants for the State Eligibility Test (SET), the qualification criteria to become an assistant professor in universities and affiliated colleges in the state, dipped by over 12,000 this year when compared to over 1.11 lakh applicants last year. Full story here

The Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) has started a new facility to process documents of retiring army officers online to ensure the pension payment order (PPO) number is made available to them on time. The facility called Sparsh was launched by the office of PCDA (O), which is responsible for pre-audit, salaries, allowances and all claims of army officers, in the first week of August. Full story here

The Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute (Deemed to be University), as part of its bicentenary celebrations, has launched new academic programmes. Vice-chancellor Pramod Pandey said the university offers master’s in arts degrees in three subjects —archaeology, linguistics and Sanskrit. It also offers short-term self-financed courses in archaeology and linguistics. Full story here

The constant change in the guidelines about reopening and shutting down of schools has caused inconvenience to parents, students and the staff as they are unable to plan their schedules. Educators said the lack of coordination between government departments is costing students and the schools and resulting in academic loss. The constant change in timetables is because the state government has not been able to plan the academic year, many students said. Full story here