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Maharashtra records 14,317 new Covid-19 infections, highest in 2021
Earlier in the day, the Nagpur administration announced a strict lockdown from March 15 to March 21.
Continuing the upward surge of single-day Covid-19 infections, Maharashtra on Thursday reported 14,317 new Covid-19 cases, the highest in 2021 so far. Mumbai on the other hand witnessed a dip from yesterday's figure (1,539) and recorded 1,508 cases in the last 24 hours.
The Centre on Thursday expressed concerns over the Covid-19 situation of Maharashtra as eight districts of the state have the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in the country. The districts include Pune (18,474), followed by Nagpur (12,724), Thane (10.460), Mumbai (9,973), Bengaluru Urban (5,526), Ernakulam (5,430), Amravati (5,259), Jalgaon (5,029), Nashik (4.525) and Aurangabad (4,354).
"We are very worried about Maharashtra — across several districts. We have seen their names. As we came here, we came to know that very strict lockdown is being imposed in Nagpur in particularly. So we are reaching a situation where those approaches are being brought back. This is a very serious issue for us," Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul said.
Earlier in the day, the Nagpur administration announced a strict lockdown from March 15 to March 21 to combat the spread of the infection. Apart from essential services, everything else, including private offices, will remain closed.
Before Nagpur, several other districts like Amravati, Nashik, Yavatmal, Amravati imposed restrictions triggering speculations about whether the entire state will be again placed under lockdown. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier expressed reservations against lockdown, but on Thursday he said that strict measures may be taken at some places but as a last resort. As he addressed the state in the evening, he reiterated that he is not in favour of lockdown.
Since the middle of February, Maharashtra started seeing a sudden rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, which has so far been attributed to laxity in testing, tracking. The Centre had sent a team to the state to probe into the reasons behind the spike. In its report, the expert team dismissed any link between the mutant strain of Covid-19 with the spike and mentioned that general carelessness, absence of fear, pandemic fatigue, crowded public transport, elections as the reasons for the surge.
