At 773, Maharashtra sees highest one-day Covid-19 death toll

Meanwhile, in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases and the recent oxygen leakages and fires in hospitals, the state government has ordered fire and oxygen audit for all the hospitals across the state.

The state on Friday recorded 66,836 new Covid-19 cases and 773 deaths — the highest one-day toll since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the state last year. Meanwhile, in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases and the recent oxygen leakages and fires in hospitals, the state government has ordered fire and oxygen audit for all the hospitals across the state.

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In addition, the state government has also given oxygen tankers the status of an ambulance, to facilitate faster movement of oxygen.

The decision for audit was taken due to two major incidents, oxygen leakage at a Nashik hospital which claimed 24 lives and the Vasai fire incident where 13 patients were found dead.

Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte in a meeting on Friday ordered all hospitals to undertake fire audit and immediately rectify all the defects pointed in the audit. In addition, he also ordered an oxygen audit to ensure that leakages are plugged and that there is a proper upkeep of all the parts of the equipment. He has also mandated police security for all vehicles transporting oxygen cylinders and prohibited officials from diverting them.

The shortage of hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen as well as Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, continued to hassle Covid-19 patients.

At Buldhana, a farmer family took the Covid-19 patient in an ambulance to the zilla parishad office after failing to get a hospital bed in that region. They went through seven such hospitals but to no avail. The act of taking the ambulance at the office sent shockwaves and the patient was finally able to secure a bed in a local hospital.

There was a virtual fight for oxygen tanker as both Satara and Kolhapur staked claim for it. The tanker which was stationed at Satara border saw verbal duet between officials of both the cities.

Currently, there are 691,851 active patients across the state; of which Pune tops with 116,602 patients followed by Mumbai with 81,174 active patients. The death toll has now reached 63,252 with Mumbai leading with 12,655 deaths followed by Pune 8928.

The state government has imposed a total lockdown from Thursday night to contain the surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths.

Dr Ameet Mandot, director of Gut Clinic at Parel, said lockdown will only serve to give breathing space to the administration. “The lockdown will serve to put a break on the surge and allow the government to beef up their medical infrastructure. However, this lockdown needs to be implemented stringently along with a crackdown on violations,” said Mandot.