Dip in active cases: Maharashtra sees 3,286 fresh Covid cases

As the Covid active cases went lowest in the last seven months, the Maharashtra government has decided to reopen all the religious places from October 7 after a gap of five months

Maharashtra recorded 3,286 fresh Covid-19 cases pushing the count to 6,537,843 on Friday. The tally of active cases was further reduced to 38,491 as 3,933 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours. It is the lowest since February when the active cases dipped to 37,516 on February 3.

A medic collects swab samples for Covid test of passengers arriving on outstation trains at Dadar station, in Mumbai. (HT PHOTO)

State also recorded 51 casualties. The death toll now stands at 138,776. Satara reported the highest toll with seven deaths.

As the active cases went lowest in the last seven months, the state government has decided to reopen all the religious places from October 7 after a gap of five months, except for those that fall under containment zones. The decision was declared by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday.

The religious places were shut down in April after the second wave of Covid-19 started in the state in mid-February. After the first wave, they were started in November last year.

This is in addition to the state government’s decision to restart physical classes in schools in the state from October 4. It has been decided that the offline classes will be allowed for Class 8 to 12 in the urban areas and Class 5 to 7 in rural areas of the state. It has also issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the same on Friday.

According to health experts, the impact of the festivals will be seen only after a period of two weeks and a third wave may hit the state by December or January. To be prepared for the situation, the state government on Friday directed all the liquid medical oxygen manufacturers and refillers to ensure their storage is maintained at 95% of full capacity from September 30 until further orders.

“All liquid medical oxygen (LMO) manufacturers and refillers in the state shall ensure their storages are maintained at 95% of full capacity by September 30 and will continue maintaining storage at this level till further order. To achieve this, LMO manufacturers shall ensure that their plants run at full LMO production capacity,” stated an order issued by the chief secretary Sitaram Kunte on Friday.

“District collectors shall ensure that all LMO storages in the district (both public and private hospitals) shall be maintained at the maximum possible technical feasible level. This activity may be taken up immediately… The authorities concerned shall be competent to take appropriate actions for any violations of the directions… Public health department in consultation with the medical oxygen and drugs department should adjust non-medical oxygen used as medical oxygen needs start rising,” it added further.

The state was caught unaware during the second wave of Covid-19, leading to shortage of oxygen and beds.

With 446 cases on Friday, Mumbai reported a total 740,305 cases to date. It also recorded six fatalities taking the toll to 16,074.

In the past 24 hours, the state tested 172,870 samples and had a positivity rate of 1.90%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 11.31%, according to the data issued by the state health department.

The state also vaccinated 522,923 doses on Friday and has administered a total 77,461,343 doses to date, according to the data available on Co-Win portal.