By ANI
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will on Friday evening hold a meeting with the state officials over the deteriorating COVID-19 situation in the state.
The meeting, scheduled to take place at 4:30 pm at CM’s Varsha residence, is likely to be attended by some officials of the union health ministry as well.
Maharashtra reported 43,183 new COVID-19 cases and 249 deaths on Thursday. The state has been the biggest contributor of coronavirus cases on a daily basis in the country in the past few weeks. The state currently has 367,897 active coronavirus cases and has reported over 54,000 related deaths so far.
Thackeray on Sunday had instructed senior officials of the State Health Department and the COVID task force to prepare for lockdown. The remarks had come at a meeting of senior officials of the state’s health department and the state government’s COVID-19 task force.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister was informed that the way the number of cases is increasing on a daily basis, Maharashtra may soon face a scarcity of beds for COVID-19 patients.
ALSO READ | Vaccination phase three: Number of shots rise on day one, experts bat for scaling up inoculation capacity with private players
The Chief Minister had observed that people are not taking the guidelines seriously and that is why serious steps, similar to a lockdown, need to be considered.
Mumbai, meanwhile, continues to registrer a hugher COVID-19 case count as the city on Thursday reported 8,646 new coronavirus cases, its highest one-day rise since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The death of 18 patients during the day, the highest single-day figure since the first week of December last year, took the fatality count to 11,704, it said.
On March 28, the city had reported 6,923 new COVID-19 cases, which was the highest till then.
On December 5, 2020, the metropolis had reported 18 fatalities, but later witnessed a gradual decline in the number of deaths.
As 5,031 people got discharge from hospitals during the day, the recovery count jumped to 3,55,691, the BMC said.
ALSO READ | We can’t go back to last year: Multiplex, retail associations urge Maharashtra government to avoid lockdown
Mumbai’s COVID-19 recovery rate is now 84 per cent.
The infection growth rate has worsened to 1.38 per cent and the doubling rate has dropped to 49 days.
There are 80 active containment zones in the city, where 650 buildings have been sealed to curb the spread of the virus.
A total of 46,758 people were tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, which took Mumbai’s overall test count to 41,29,931, the civic body said.
(With PTI Inputs)
