Maharashtra gets closer to 25K cases; CM calls for lockdown exit plan

Maharashtra reported 1,026 new cases, taking its total to 24,427. Meanwhile, Mumbai is nearing the 15,000 mark after its total reached 14,947 with the addition of 426 new infections.

Maharashtra on Tuesday inched closer to the 25,000 mark for Covid-19 cases, even as chief minister Uddhav Thackeray directed district officials to prepare an exit plan from the lockdown in the next three days. The state is in favour of easing restrictions further in less-affected areas, while continuing the lockdown in red zones such as Mumbai, Pune and Nashik.

Migrant workers and their family arrives at Lokmanya Tilak terminus as a special train to Odisha organised by Maharashtra government in Mumbai, India. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The state reported 1,026 new cases, taking its total to 24,427. Meanwhile, Mumbai is nearing the 15,000 mark after its total reached 14,947 with the addition of 426 new infections. A total of 53 more deaths were reported on Tuesday, taking the toll to 921. Of the deaths, 28 were in Mumbai, six each in Pune and Panvel, five in Jalgaon, three in Solapur, two in Thane and one each in Raigad, Aurangabad city and Jalgaon city. Twenty-one of the patients who died on Tuesday were above 60 years of age, while 27 were in the age group of 40 to 59 years and the remaining were below the age of 40 years. Thirty-five of them had high-risk comorbidities including diabetes, hypertension and heart ailments.

The state has reported 5,364 cases in the past four days and saw 190 deaths during this period.

On the lockdown exit plan, Thackeray emphasised strict lockdown implementation in containment zones (where cases are found in large numbers) and said that the virus should not spread out of these areas. The chief minister also said that those districts that have adequate health machinery should start door-to-door screening of people, which was followed in Goa, to ascertain symptoms and comorbidities.

Thackeray held a video conference with the divisional commissioner and district collectors and asked all district authorities to submit an exit plan with their suggestions and expectations. “The plan has to come in from all the districts by May 15, based on which the state would prepare its plan and submit it to the Centre. The CM stressed that now the chain should be broken and that there should not be any transmission outside the containment zones in the state,” a senior bureaucrat said.

State saw 10,514 cases in just nine days, while the deaths reported in this period were 373. The state breached its 10,000-case mark on April 30 after having reported its first Covid-19 case on March 9. It took nearly 53 days to reach its 10,000 cases mark. It crossed 15,000 cases on May 5.

The state health department has added a disclaimer to the data it released, stating that even the Mumbai corporation has started referring to the ICMR data for cases and reconciliation may lead to a difference in figures.

According to the state health department, the mortality rate in the state stood at 3.71%, down from 7.21% on April 12. The country’s mortality rate hovers around 3.24%.

Maharashtra has sent back over 65,000 migrants in more than 50 trains to various states so far. “We have been feeding more than 16 lakh people, including the homeless, migrants, beggars, for the past 50 days. It included 5.70 lakh migrants who were at the shelters in various districts. Besides those who have been sent back in trains, the same number of migrants has been sent back in buses or arrangements have been made to send them back on their own. There are a few lakh migrant workers who have been living in their own or rented homes in the cities and will go back whenever the trains start. Although we do not have data compiled, there could be a mass exodus from cities like Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nashik once the trains start,” said an official from the relief and rehabilitation department.

With the constant rise in Covid-19 cases, the state government is not in favour of relaxing lockdown restrictions at least in the red zones such as Mumbai and Pune, where new cases are being reported in significant numbers. While taking a review of the situation about the Covid-19 spread and the challenges that are being faced by the district administration, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray also gauged the mood at the district level over the lockdown. The district authorities of the orange and green zones have been directed to push for industrial and commercial operations in their areas. The government is expecting maximum industrial units to go operational in these areas as it would help it in revival of the economy.

A statement from the CMO stated the chief minister cited the example of Goa, which carried out a door-to-door survey for Covid-19. “The size of Goa is like one of our districts. They went door-to-door and screened people for symptoms. If district authorities carry out a primary check-up, not just for coronavirus, but for other diseases as well, people would not only get timely treatment, but also get cured,” the statement said.

A divisional commissioner, who was a part of the meeting said, “He (The CM) said that some districts that have a sizeable population proportionate to health machinery should engage in door-to-door screening. It is will not only help in symptoms for Covid-19, but also help build data for other diseases such as diabetes, heart ailments, etc. Not all districts would engage in it for want of healthcare staff, but a couple of districts could start.” He added that door-to-door screening is done in containment zones.

Thackeray also discussed measures to revive the state economy. He said that although economic activities have resumed in the green zone of Maharashtra, authorities should ensure that there are no new cases. A senior bureaucrat added, “The chief minister has also asked the department concerned to prepare a plan if migrants do not come back in time. Maharashtra will also have to look at creating its new workforce.”

“The authorities in the red zones have, however, been asked to strictly implement lockdown orders. State government wanted the suburban railway services to be operational in Mumbai for essential services so that the stress on the employees in these services is relieved and a positive message is sent out. But while doing so, stricter implementation of the restrictions in the containment zones is necessary. The district collectors and municipal commissioners have been asked to go for aggressive contact tracing and institutional quarantine of people in containment zones,” an official from the home department said.

The number of recoveries has, however, significantly gone up, owing to the change in the policy of discharging the patients. The number of the recoveries in the state has increased significantly over the past few days, taking the number to over 5,000. “587 patients recovered on Monday and it’s a record number of recoveries. A total of 339 patients were discharged on Tuesday. The improvement in the recovery rate will help us in minimising the fear about the virus,” said state health minister Rajesh Tope.

After Gondia, Parbhani district has successfully elevated itself to green zone from Orange zone as the district has not found any new patient in the last 14 days. Gondia was another district to become a green zone last week by retaining its number of cases at 1. Gadchiroli in Vidarbha is the only district which has not reported a single case of coronavirus so far. Another Vidarbha district ,Wardha, reported its first case two days ago pushing it into the orange zone.

The number of tests in the state touched 22,1645 on Tuesday. 19,5804 of them were negative. 2,81655 people are currently under home quarantine, while 15,627 are under institutional quarantine. 12,923 teams of health workers have screened 54.92 lakh people for suspected infection, after they came in contact with patients. 5,125 patients have fully recovered from various hospitals, after testing positive in the past nine weeks.

State has 1,289 containment zones earmarked for the strict lockdown owing to the high number of positive patients. In Mumbai, municipal corporation has broken the zones into smaller ones for better monitoring.

A report released by Medical Education and Drugs Department has highlighted that 73% of the patients died so far had high risk comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, heart ailment among others. 52% patients found positive after their tests, were Asymptomatic, the report released on Tuesday stated.

Meanwhile, state police registered 1.04 lakh cases against the citizens for the violation of the lockdown restrictions under section 188 of the criminal procedure code. 19,838 citizens were arrested and fines amounting to ₹3.98 crore collected from them. Home minister Anil Deshmukh said that 750 people have been arrested for 212 cases of attack on police during lockdown.