552 new Covid-19 cases; Maharashtra tally 4,200

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded its highest 24-hour jump in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 552 more infections, even as the state government plans to ease

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded its highest 24-hour jump in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 552 more infections, even as the state government plans to ease restrictions and resume industrial operations in rural areas from Monday. Of the new cases, which took India’s worst-hit state’s tally to 4,200, 456 of them were in Mumbai, taking the financial capital’s case count to 2,724. The Sunday spurt in cases rendered a blow to the rate of doubling of cases, after the relatively lower number of cases over the past four days.

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Maharashtra took 30 days to cross the 1,000-case mark on April 7, while it crossed the 2,000 mark in just six days on April 13. From 2,000 cases to 4,000, the state took six days.

According to officials, the sudden rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai is because of the backlog from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a few private laboratories. The state health department said that some cases from Saturday evening had been waiting for confirmation. “We have to verify all the cases that we get, which takes time. Private labs send us the data first, then to BMC, so sometimes we observe discrepancy in reporting of cases,” said Anup Kumar Yadav, commissioner (family welfare ) and director, National Health Mission, Maharashtra.

“We have increased the number of daily tests, so of course, the detection of new cases will rise. We shouldn’t say that the curve is falling depending on the data of one-two days. We have to consider data for at least a week before we can come to a conclusion,” he said.

The state also reported 12 deaths on Sunday, taking the toll to 223. Of these, six were in Mumbai, four from Malegaon and one each from Solapur and Ahmednagar. Six of them were above 60 years of age, while five were between 40 and 60 years, according to the report released by the state health department.

“Some of the test reports added to today’s tally are from tests conducted since April 12 in Mumbai, thus increasing the tally,” the report stated. According to officials from the health department, the verification of private laboratory reports by government laboratories takes a few days. “It leads to a sharp spike in numbers on the day the verification is done,” an official said.

Maharashtra has conducted 72,023 tests, of which, 67,673 samples tested negative. A total of 507 patients have fully recovered. There are 87,254 people under home quarantine across the state, while 6,743 are under institutional quarantine. The number of containment zones in the state has reduced to 368, most of them being in Mumbai. State authorities have so far screened 23.97 lakh people, with the help of 6,359 teams, as part of its containment strategy.

Earlier in the day, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, while announcing the relaxation of lockdown restrictions in rural parts of the state, clarified that the strict restrictions in containment areas and in Mumbai and Pune will continue at least till May 3. “We are relaxing restrictions in green and orange zones, which have zero or fewer Covid-19 patients, to a certain extent. The industrial operations in these zones will be allowed, but the employers will have to ensure arrangements for stay and food for the employees. The district borders will, however, remained sealed and no intra-district activities be permitted,” he said.

The state government has also directed 10% of its employees to resume work from Monday. By doing this, the government wants to resume public services step-by-step. Maharashtra has only four districts (Nanded, Wardha, Bhandara and Gadchiroli) with no patients, while in 18 districts, the number (of Covid-19 cases) is in single digits. “We expect the industrial units in pharmaceuticals, agricultural sectors to begin operating from Monday. They are expected to follow the standard operating procedures laid down under the lockdown restrictions for their employees. There are 10.26 lakh registered MSMEs in the state, while 4.5 lakh are in areas which are partially exempted from April 20. We want 60% of them to be operational by the end of the month. However, major industries are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune, where operations are unlikely to begin at least for the next few weeks,” said an official from the industries department.

Some of the industries have been directed to operate at 50% of their workforce. The vehicles carrying workers will have to be restricted to 30-40% of the capacity of the vehicles, the restrictions imposed on the industries stated. The exemptions for e-commerce activities, shops selling sweets, snacks like farsan will begin operating from Monday in the areas that are not affected by Covid-19. “All these activities continue to be banned in MMR, Pune city, Nagpur city, which have been largely affected by the virus. We still are apprehensive about the pace of industrial and commercial activities in the state and urban parts will still continue to be under restriction. The industrial and commercial activities are majorly controlled in urban areas, which are still under the restrictions,” said an official from the state government.

The MMR and Pune city remains to be the hotspot of Covid-19 cases, as 89.4% of the cases (3,262 of 3,648 on Saturday) and 90.5% of the deaths (191 of 211, as of Saturday) were from these regions, which are mostly urbanised areas. MMR and Pune accounts for less than 25% of the state’s population.

The Maharashtra police have registered 55,393 cases related to violation of lockdown rules since March 22, the day the chief minister announced a complete lockdown in the state. The police helpline received 72,644 calls related to the pandemic, while 11,645 citizens have been arrested over the past four weeks. Of the total offences, 105 were for assault on policemen, while 567 were for violation of quarantine measures. The police have also booked 15 foreigners for visa violations. A total of 241 cases over objectionable posts on social media were also registered in the state.

Meanwhile, Thackeray, in his video conference with district collectors and divisional commissioners on Sunday evening, said the last week of April and two weeks of May could prove to be crucial to judge the trend of the pandemic. “During this period, we will be in a position to judge if the trend is moving downwards or upwards. The battle has just started and will go on for the next three months. We have to convert the red zones into orange ones and orange zones into green ones,” he said.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said the state has received 75,000 rapid test kits from the Centre. “We will begin the tests in the red zones very soon,” he said.

Additional chief secretary, finance, Manoj Saunik, elaborated on the red, orange and green zones in the video conference. “The red zones are areas divided into outbreak area and cluster area, with more than 15 and less than 15 patients respectively. A red zone is converted into an orange zone after it sees no patient in 14 days. A green zone is converted from an orange zone after it does not register a patient in 14 days,” he said.

Toll collection to resume from April 20

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will resume toll collection on state highways from April 20. The state government had stopped collecting toll on March 29. In Mumbai, toll operations on the five entry/exit points (Dahisar, Mulund, LBS Marg, Vashi and Airoli) along with the Bandra-Worli sea link will also resume from April 20, a government official confirmed.

(with inputs from Rupsa Chakraborty)