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Covid-19 update- Maharashtra tally past 15,000, Mumbai nearing 10,000 mark
Maharashtra has set a May 31 deadline for containment of coronavirus cases.
Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 984 coronavirus cases, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 15,525; the state also recorded 34 fatalities, taking the Covid-19 death toll to 617. Of the new cases, 841 were reported in the last 24 hours, while remaining 143 were carried forward from the last few days as per the central government’s directive to bring the data at par with the national figures on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state government stated.
635 new cases were from Mumbai, which also saw 26 deaths on Tuesday. Six deaths were reported from Pune and one each from Aurangabad and Kolhapur. At least 14 of the deceased on Tuesday were above 60 years of age, while 28 had high-risk comorbidities. The mortality rate in the state stood at 4.01%, down from 7.21% on April 12, but the number of deaths, 299, in the past ten days since April 26 has increased. The country’s mortality rate hovers around 3.23%.
State government has directed the district collectors and municipal commissioners to concentrate on the containment zones fearing their monitoring may become difficult after the additional relaxations in the lockdown came into effect from Monday.
“There are complaints of crowding in many places after liquor and other non-essential shops were allowed to operate. Restricting the spread from the Red and containment zones will become more important after the relaxations. The clampdown in containment zones, especially in MMR and PMR should not be relaxed at any cost,” a government’s directive to the district authorities said.
According to the officials, despite chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s directive to districts, the full containment of coronavirus by May end looks difficult.
“He has set the target and asked the authorities to ensure the strictest monitoring under the principle of 3-Ts (tracing, testing and treatment) in containment areas. He has also asked them to focus on shrinking the containment zones to neutralize the areas. Though the cases are not expected to come to nil so soon, we expect a downward trend to begin by then,” said an official.
The official said that though there are various projections about the curve of the disease’s spread, the government expects the downward trend to begin in the next two to three weeks.
Dr TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research, said, “Almost all the contacts of positive patients are traced and will be quarantined in next ten days. During this period the rate of growth in cases will move northward and once two weeks of quarantine is over, we expect a drastic fall in the numbers by the end of this month.”
Officials said that May 31 target to flatten the curve was set to contain the spread effectively enabling the lifting of the lockdown in Mumbai, Pune and other cities.
Meanwhile, the state government issued a clarification saying there would be no restrictions on the number of days in a week or on the number of hours a shop can operate unless specified by the municipal commissioners and the district collectors.
“All shops and markets which are allowed to remain open as per the order shall remain open to their full operations timing and day. However, the municipal commissioners in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune Metropolitan Region, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad and district collectors in other areas will have the right to decide on the timing of operation in case there is need of regulating these commercial activities.
“There were too many authorities issuing orders without any uniformity on the timing and days at the local level. This order brings clarity,” said Bhushan Gagarani, principal secretary, Maharashtra government.
Late on Tuesday, Mumbai civic body issued a notification saying liquor shops and non-essential goods shops will not be allowed in the city to prevent crowding.
State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the recovery rate in Maharashtra has improved.
“As many as 354 patients were sent home after they recovered from the infection fully. This was the highest single-day recovery since the first patient was reported on March 9. We are conducting more than 7000 tests in 45 laboratories daily and the number is highest in the country,” he said.
In the past 24 hours, the state has carried out 6,561 coronavirus tests and 12.81% of the total people tested were found positive. The total number of tests conducted in the state so far reached 1,82,884 on Tuesday including 1,67,205 negative results.
The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19
199,182 people are currently under home quarantine, while 12,456 are under institutional quarantine. 11,629 teams of health workers have screened 50.81 lakh suspects.
Meanwhile, some districts namely Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg and some municipal authorities, namely in Ulhasnagar and Kalyan Dombivali, have been imposing restrictions on the movement of people from Mumbai, the worst-hit city.
