News Analysis India

Tag: Maharashtra COVID measures

  • Mumbai stable but Maharashtra’s COVID-19 situation looks grim

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: Mumbai seems to have turned the corner, with steady oxygen supply and better recovery rate giving a breathing space to its hard pressed healthcare system. As on Thursday, the city had 8,322 beds available at various hospitals.

    However, the state is still not out of the woods with its two other major cities – Nagpur and Pune – reeling under case burden.

    As per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation data, the recovery rate in Mumbai is now 87 per cent while the doubling rate has jumped to 74 days as against 48 days a few days ago. All these are markers of a healthy trend.

    ALSO READ| Maharashtra may see third COVID wave in July-August, Uddhav tells officials to prepare

    According to the BMC data dated April 25, out of a total of 29,903 beds in hospitals, 21,581 beds are occupied. However, the picture across the state is still grim. The worst affected are Nagpur and Pune, with positivity rates of 11.19 and 15.19 per cent respectively. 

    It is this high positivity rate that has prompted the government to extend the lockdown till May 15, with the existing restrictions continuing. The decision follows a persistent spike in active cases in the range of 60,000-65,000 per day, with the mortality rate rising to 21.42 per cent in April.

    Pradeep Awate, joint director of health, said that Maharashtra is in the early stages of flattening the COVID-19 curve. “The lockdown should be continued for a few more days. We have to ease the burden off the hospitals. From the first or second week of May, we may see a significant drop in positive cases,” he said.

    ALSO READ| Maharashtra extends lockdown till May 15 as state reports 66,159 fresh COVID cases

    Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress on Thursday said it will donate Rs 2 crore to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to contribute towards the free COVID-19 vaccination drive for people in the age group of 18 to 44.

    Speaking to reporters here, state Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said he will donate a year’s salary, while other Congress MLAs will contribute a month’s salary.

  • COVID-19: Maharashtra declares six states including Uttarakhand, Delhi as places of sensitive origin

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Struggling to contain the huge COVID-19 surge, Maharashtra on Sunday declared six states, including the national capital and the NCR region, as the places of “sensitive origin” in a bid to stop the “influx of other variants of coronavirus”from other locations.

    An order signed by Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte has declared states of Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi and NCR region, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as the places of “sensitive origin”. As per the order, passengers travelling to Maharashtra from the six states declared as the places of sensitive origin will need a RT-PCR negative test within 48 hours of their train travel.

    It said that this decision has been taken to curb the transmission of coronavirus in Maharashtra and to “stop the influx of other COVID-19 virus variants into the state of Maharashtra from other locations”. “These places will be considered the places of sensitive origin from the date of this order till the time it is retracted or till COVID-19 stays notified as a disaster,” it stated.

    Delhi on Sunday recorded the biggest jump in its daily COVID-19 tally with 25,462 fresh cases, while the positivity rate shot up to 29.74 per cent. Maharashtra, which is the worst-hit state in terms of the number of cases and deaths, on Sunday reported the highest number of 68,631 fresh infections while 503 patients died, as per the state health department.

    With this, the cumulative caseload in Maharashtra mounted to 38,39,338 while the death toll reached 60,473. The Maharashtra government also issued a standing operating procedure (SOP) for passengers from the six states of sensitive origin.

    In the SOP for passengers travelling in long-distance trains from these six places, the government said the Railways shall share data of the trains that are scheduled to be running between these origins and stations in Maharashtra with the local disaster management authorities.

    It said that data of passengers will be shared with local disaster management authority each day, four hours before the departure from the origin of trains. No unreserved tickets will be issued from these places to Maharashtra. “Railways should ensure that trains from the places of sensitive origin should come to outer platforms where it is easier to conduct thermal screening (of passengers),” the order said.

    If passengers are not carryingthe RT-PCR negative report, they will have to undergo a rapid antigen test at the station, it added.