328 new cases in state take virus count to 3,648; toll 211

After the relatively low numbers of the past two days, Maharashtra on Saturday registered a jump in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 328 more

After the relatively low numbers of the past two days, Maharashtra on Saturday registered a jump in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 328 more infections, taking the tally to 3,648.

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Of the new cases recorded on Saturday, 184 cases were from Mumbai, taking the city’s tally to 2,268; 78 cases were from Pune. This is the third time this month that single-day numbers have crossed the 300 mark. Maharashtra also recorded 11 Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, taking its toll to 211, the state health department said. The toll figure excludes the one death reported in Mumbai on April 11, which has later corrected as a non-Covid-19 death as the test result of the deceases turned out negative.

The areas around Mumbai recorded a single-digit rise in cases on Saturday. Thane city recorded six cases, while Thane rural and Bhiwandi recorded three cases each. Kalyan-Dombivli recorded five cases, while Navi Mumbai recorded two cases. Vasai-Virar and Panvel recorded a case each. In Palghar, the number of cases reported on Saturday was seven.

There were 11 positive cases in Mira-Bhayandar, eight cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Akola, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nandurbar recorded one case each. Raigad recorded five cases, Satara saw four cases and Solapur saw two cases.

According to the state health department officials, the trajectory of the cases needs to plateau by April 21 for it to remain under control.

“We expect the cases to dip after the two 14-day incubation cycles, which began on March 22, when over 2.20 lakh people came to Mumbai airport. If the containment is good it will go down,” said TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education & Research.

Officials said the mortality rate in Maharashtra is also seeing a gradual decline. However, the state’s mortality rate is still double that of the country’s. After touching the 7%-mark on April 12, the mortality rate is decreasing primarily owing to early admission of Covid-19 patients and also due to concentrated efforts to treat patients with underlying illnesses.

The mortality rates on April 14, 15, 16 and 17 were 6.84%, 6.61%, 6.41% and 6.05%. Across these dates, 46 deaths have been reported. Lahane said, “The mortality rate is slowly decreasing because of early influx of patients. Earlier, most patients died between the first and third days of admission. Now, it happens six to seven days after admission in critical cases. When they are in hospital, we can monitor their lungs, blood-pressure, etc.”

A health department official also attributed the reduction in deaths reported in the past few days to a more “focused” approach at treating patients with comorbidities. “The chief minister has formed a committee to come up with a protocol for Covid-19 patients. What we have done now is that we operate on the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research. More attention is being given to patients with underlying illnesses; with early admissions, it helps hospitals to treat them well so that they do not become critical cases,” an official said, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, the state government on Saturday started 25 more dedicated hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients. With this, the total number of dedicated hospitals for Covid-19 in Maharashtra goes up to 55 with total capacity of 6,660 beds, said Rajesh Tope, state health minister, on Saturday. Earlier, the state has 30 hospitals with a capacity of 2,305 beds. The state government has also got permission from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to start six new government laboratories for Covid-19 tests, state medical education minister Amit Deshmukh said on Saturday. The total number of laboratories in the state now goes to 42, which includes government and private sector. The total capacity of the state for Covid-19 is now 7,600 tests per day. New testing facilities are going to come up at Kolhapur, Beed, Jalgaon, Baramati (Pune) Nanded and Gondia.

The Maharashtra government on Saturday issued orders that state government employees would start working from Monday with 10% strength. The new order also made attendance of secretaries, joint or deputy secretaries mandatory. However, women officers can be exempted from it by the order of the department head. On March 23, the state government had issued orders that it would operate with only 5% of the government staff.

As per the order, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses or municipal corporation’s buses including BEST, TMT, NMMT, will be used to ferry government employees from Monday. With the suburban railway network shut due to the lockdown, MSRTC, BEST buses will be operational between 7am and 11am and fro 4pm to 7 pm, the order state. Buses will pick up and drop employees from railway stations on western, central and harbour lines daily. Social distancing measures will be ensured and the frequency of the buses will be increased to ensure there is no crowding in the buses, officials said.

The Maharashtra government also decided to provide financial assistance of ₹2,000 to all registered construction workers in the state to tide over the crisis during the lockdown to break the chain of coronavirus infections, officials said on Saturday.

The order came days after hundreds of migrant workers, mostly from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, gathered outside the Bandra railway station demanding that they be sent back to their homes. This one-time monetary help will be sent directly to the bank accounts of more than 12 lakh construction workers through direct benefit transfer (DBT), the officials said. The decision to give the assistance, taken by the state labour department on Saturday, will bring an additional burden of around Rs250 crore to the state exchequer.

Only those workers who are registered with the state’s Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (BOCWWB) will be eligible to get the monetary assistance. Maharashtra has 22.70 lakh registered construction workers but only 12.18 lakh who are active, will get the benefit of the decision, said S C Srirangam, the board’s secretary and chief executive officer said.

Meanwhile, the state on Friday decided to allow construction work in cities, including Mumbai and Pune, with a rider that prior permission from civic authorities will be mandatory. According to the order issued by chief secretary Ajoy Mehta on Friday, the state has given permission for all urgent pre-monsoon works. The Maharashtra government has started to allow the relaxation of rules in several areas of the state.

With the alteration in the testing protocol adopted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC), former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis wrote to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray calling it an “unnatural” attempt to lower the number of Covid-19 cases. Fadnavis said that the state government should follow the ICMR guidelines in testing the immediate contacts of the person who tested positive for coronavirus. Lahane defended the testing protocol adopted by the BMC and said, “There is nothing wrong in it. They are testing but after five days. [It is seen] after five days you get the test positive. This negates the false-negative when tested immediately, which is dangerous; it is better to wait.”