Maharashtra Covid-19 case tally crosses 8,000; death toll rises to 342

Of Sunday’s cases, Mumbai continued to record the majority of the state’s cases with 358 new infections. Mumbai alone has 5,407 cases, while its surrounding areas of Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts have 936 cases in all.

Maharashtra on Sunday reported 440 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a slight drop from Saturday’s record figure of 811, taking the number of infected people in the state past the 8,000 mark to 8,068. The state doubled its tally from 4,000 to 8,000 in seven days. The state took six days to go from both 2,000 cases to 4,000 and from 1,000 to 2,000.

Maharashtra, till date, has conducted 1,16,345 coronavirus tests, of which 1,07,519 are tested negative. (ANI file photo)

The state on Sunday recorded 19 deaths, taking the toll to 342.

Of Sunday’s cases, Mumbai continued to record the majority of the state’s cases with 358 new infections. Mumbai alone has 5,407 cases, while its surrounding areas of Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts have 936 cases in all. Mumbai reported 12 deaths, while Pune saw three, Jalgaon two and Solapur city and Latur saw one each.

With the rising number of cases in Mumbai and Pune region, the state government is yet to take a call on the Union Ministry of Home Affairs notification allowing all shops, excluding liquor shops and those providing services, in urban and rural areas to reopen. State officials said that the government is still considering the “pros and cons” of allowing the opening of shops in urban areas.

“Allowing shops to reopen in the non-containment areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune region could be harmful as hundreds of cases are being recorded daily. The chief minister is taking a review of all areas,” an official said.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday indicated that the decision on relaxation of restrictions in the state will be taken after a review of the situation once the national lockdown ends on May 3. He also for the first time in his address said that this was not the time to play dirty politics, indirectly alluding to the politicking over his nomination to the Maharashtra legislative council. The governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, has not yet responded to the state cabinet’s recommendation to nominate Thackeray to the upper House.

Thackeray has until May 27 to get nominated to one of the Houses of the state legislature and if is isn’t elected until then, he will be forced to step down.

“There are questions about what will happen after the lockdown ends on May 3. Since April 20, we have gradually eased restrictions at some places. In Mumbai, this led to crowds that we cannot afford… We are not opening district borders in rural Maharashtra but gradually easing restrictions within districts to allow economic activity to resume. I am receiving daily reports. I will hold a review today evening and decide on further relaxations from 3rd May onwards,” Thackeray said, during his address via Facebook Live.

“If we do politics at this time, then we do not need any other enemy. Elections come and go, so does power. But now if lives are lost, they will not come back. Therefore, no one should play dirty politics in this.” At the same time, he thanked Union minister Nitin Gadkari for sending a message to his party colleagues to keep politics aside at the time of a national crisis.

A day ahead of the meeting between chief ministers of all states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Thackeray took a review of the situation in Maharashtra on Sunday. An official, who was present in the review meeting, said, “The CM took stock of the situation. He reviewed the situation in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, which have more cases. There are 11 districts, including Sangli, which have not reported any new cases in the past three days, while three districts — Bhandara, Gadhchiroli and Wardha — do not have any cases so far. The doubling rate of the cases and the death rate in the state was also discussed as Maharashtra has been reporting around 20 deaths for the past three days.”

Maharashtra, till date, has conducted 1,16,345 coronavirus tests, of which 1,07,519 are tested negative. On Sunday, the state health department said that 112 people have been discharged from the hospitals, taking the total number of recovered patients to 1,188. Currently, there are 1,36,926 people under home quarantine, while 9,160 are under institutional quarantine.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has 67.01% of the total Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra, is preparing for a drastic spike by May 15. The civic body, according to Manisha Mhaiskar, one of the bureaucrats on the Covid-19 task-force in BMC, is basing is preparedness plan on the projections of the Centre for Mumbai. She said that taking an input assumption for a doubling rate of seven days in Mumbai, the modelling suggests that there would be around 70,000 cases towards the second half of May. “I am not saying this, this is a projection of the Centre,” Mhaiskar said.

In a Facebook post, Mhaiskar said, “The current doubling rate of coronavirus in Mumbai is 7 days. Positive cases doubled from 2,120 on 17th to 4232 on 23rd April. If 7days is taken as the input assumption, the modelling suggests that there would be around 70,000 cases towards second half of May. This has become the basis for preparing for Ides of May.” According to her post, the “obvious” task before the civic body is to improve the doubling rate. House-to-house surveillance, aggressive contact tracing, and containment strategies have been put in place, an official added.