Maha goes under curfew, sees 58,592 fresh Covid cases

Maharashtra recorded 58,952 fresh Covid-19 infections and 278 deaths, pushing the tally to 3,578,160 and toll to 58,804, the ninth straight day of over 50,000 new cases, even as the state began its 15-day curfew, along with other strict restrictions, to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus, from 8pm on Wednesday

Maharashtra recorded 58,952 fresh Covid-19 infections and 278 deaths, pushing the tally to 3,578,160 and toll to 58,804, the ninth straight day of over 50,000 new cases, even as the state began its 15-day curfew, along with other strict restrictions, to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus, from 8pm on Wednesday.

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Amid this, India’s worst-hit state continues to reel under the unprecedented Covid-19 surge, as a total of 765,094 cases were recorded in the past 14 days. The spike has led to a sharp rise in active cases at 612,070 — 17.10% of the total infections.

With a rising number of active infections, occupancy of beds in hospitals and Covid-19 centres are also increasing rapidly, but the state government is more worried about the lack of oxygen.

Responding to the request of the state government for providing oxygen from neighbouring states, the central government has allowed them to get it from Haldia and Durgapur in West Bengal, Bokaro (Jharkhand), Rourkela (Odisha), Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, Bellary in Karnataka, Hyderabad in Telangana, among other places.

It has appointed a committee of three IAS officers to plan to bring the oxygen from there, said a senior official. Maharashtra produces around 1,200 metric tonnes of oxygen daily and has started consuming the entire production for medical purposes, only owing to the increased demand from hospitals.

“We will prefer bringing oxygen by railways, but will choose to bring them by road in a 30- tonne tanker each if there is no other option left. Since some locations are too far, we have planned for it. For instance, oxygen coming from eastern states will supply oxygen in districts such as Nagpur, Amravati, while oxygen coming from southern states will be used in Kolhapur, Osmanabad, Beed, Nanded etc. This will reduce the duration of the journey,” said Sitaram Kunte, chief secretary.

He said that the state will require around 7,500 metric tonnes till April 30 in addition to what is going to be produced in the corresponding period.

“We have been flagging the projection on the rising use of oxygen since we have started consuming 600 metric tonnes for medical purposes and have been demanding allocation of oxygen from the Centre. After following up the matter for so long, now they have allocated oxygen, which again is too far. Places like Bokaro will take almost seven days for a return journey for oxygen supply in the state,” said a senior officer, requesting anonymity.

The health minister maintained that there is no shortage of oxygen in the state yet but they need more oxygen in the coming days. “Yet there is no shortage of oxygen and there is not a single patient who is not getting oxygen in any hospital,” Tope stressed.

Thackeray in the meeting with local authorities informed that efforts are going on a war footing to get oxygen supply for the hospitals and thus their rational use has become absolutely necessary. He asked them to ensure rational use of the available oxygen.

To arrest the spike, the state government has decided to impose stricter curbs from Wednesday evening till the end of April, but by when the cases are going to stabilize is yet to be seen.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the impact is expected to be visible within a fortnight as peoples’ movement have been restricted. However, we all will have to be very careful as the case may start rising again once restrictions are lifted. “As soon as we restrict peoples’ movement the transmission level will start reducing as the number of people stepping out of the homes will get limited. This will reduce the number of transmissions and ultimately it will start reflecting in the daily figures in the next one or two weeks,” the health minister said.

“But it doesn’t mean that the cases will not start rising again. As soon as the restrictions are lifted and people will behave with their callous attitude then no one can guarantee that there won’t be any spike again. We have to be very careful to allow the wave to settle down by means of restricting ourselves,” Tope added.

For strict implementation of the fresh restrictions, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting of local administration including divisional commissioners, district collectors, municipal commissioners and directed them to shut down facilities allowed by the state if Covid protocols are found to be violated.

“We have not closed down essential services but it doesn’t mean they are allowed to violate Covid rules. Shut them down if found violating rules,” Thackeray said, while directing the local authorities.

The government on Tuesday had announced stricter, curfew-like restrictions till May 1, however, there was some confusion among citizens over the movement of people via public transport and private vehicles, which services were allowed under e-commerce, following which senior officials issued a set of FAQs to address queries.

In the last 24 hours, the state tested 242,149 samples and had a positivity rate of 24.34%. The overall positivity rate of the state stood at 15.86%. It has also reported recoveries of 39,264 patients on Wednesday taking the tally of recovered patients to 2,905,721.

With 6,562 cases, Nagpur recorded the second-highest cases across the state. Of them, Nagpur city and district recorded 4,282 and 2,280 respectively in a day.

The chief minister said it is a mutated strain and is infecting younger people more than others. “The current scenario is more difficult and challenging hence all the restrictions imposed need to be strictly followed. The responsibility for the same is on the collectorate and police administration. We cannot afford being careless,” the chief minister said