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Covid-19: Maharashtra becomes first state with more than 3,000 infections
Out of 3,202 positive cases of Covid-19 in Maharashtra, Mumbai has 2,063.
With around a fourth of the total cases in the country, Maharashtra on Thursday has become the first state to cross 3,000 Covid-19 cases.
The number of infected people in Mumbai rose over 2,000 with 177 new cases.
The state government has claimed that there was a drop in the rate of doubling of the cases and increase in recovery of Covid-19 patients.
The state government has also started planning to relax the lockdown restrictions in about half of its districts from next week by allowing the industrial operations and within district movements.
A total of 286people tested positive on Thursday taking Maharashtra’s tally to 3,202, while deaths of seven more patients took the number of casualties to 194.
Among those who died, four were from Mumbai while three were from Pune. Four of them were above 60 years of age while the others were above 40. Six had underlying ailments including diabetes, heart ailment, asthma and high blood pressure, the state health department said in a statement.
The number of positive cases reached 2,063 in Mumbai which remains the most affected city in India.
The health department said it has conducted 56,673 tests at various public and private facilities till date. Of them 52,762 people tested negative. Maharashtra currently has 297 active containment zones.
A total of 5,664 survey teams comprising doctors and assisting staff have screened more than 20.50 lakh people. Three hundred patients have been discharged from the hospitals after their recovery from the infection, 71,076 people in the state are home quarantined, while 6,108 are under institutional quarantine.
State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the rate of the doubling of cases has improved to 5.5 days from 2 and 3.5 days a few days ago. “We expect to improve it further. It is true that the mortality rate in the state is high at 7%, but it is due to the co-morbidity among the patients. 83% deaths are related to underlying ailments such diabetes, and ailments related to heart and kidney. We have also formed a task force of experts to suggest measures to minimize death rate and clinical management of Covid-19 patients who are critically ill,” he said.
He added that the percentage of the patients being discharged after the successful recovery from the Covid-19 infection has increased. “Our focus on expediting the recovery has been reaping fruits as the rate of discharging patients has increased. 300 patients have been discharged so far,” he said.
The minister said six more labs are expected to be added in the existing count of 36 laboratories for testing samples for coronavirus.
“We are expecting the approval from the ICMR to our proposal of pool testing rapid testing,” he said. He said that all 1400 people from Maharashtra, who had attended international congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi, have been traced, quarantined and tested.
“Only 50 of them are Covid-19 positive, the rest are kept in quarantine facilities,” he said.
The state government is also planning to relax the lockdown restriction in the state from April 20. The relaxation will, however, be in the non-affected areas and limited only to the essential services, industries and agriculture sector by strict following of the lockdown norms. Tope clarified that no public gathering will be allowed or educational institutions such as school and colleges will be allowed to function.
The state government is also planning to increase the workforce in government offices to 33%. In a video conference on Thursday, top level officials held discussion on the guidelines by the central government. “Based on the notification issued by the Centre, we have already included a few auxiliary sectors in exempted essential activities. The districts with no Covid-19 patients or less than 15 patients can have more relaxation from the lockdown restrictions,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
There are seven districts with no positive patients and four other districts whose rural parts are unaffected. These districts will get maximum relief though all the activities will be released within the district boundaries which have been sealed. The districts with less than 15 patients are expected to get relief in the unaffected areas. However the most affected areas, mostly governed by municipal corporation will continue with the lockdown with its strict implementation, said the official.
Industries minister Subhash Desai said that the state government was considering allowing industrial operations in at least 20 districts which have either no case or very few cases from April 20. “Following the Centre’s guidelines for the second phase of lockdown and by using our own powers we are preparing a proposal to begin industrial operations in some districts. The industrial units following the standard operating procedures (SOP) and making arrangements for their employees would be allowed to begin operations,” he said.
The minister said that the industrial units will have to make arrangements for the shelter and transportation of the workers. According to officials, the state government has planned to begin operations of at least 60% MSMEs by month end.
