Maha tally goes past 15,000 as city inches towards 10,000 mark

Maharashtra on Tuesday crossed the 15,000 mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 984 infections, taking the tally to 15,525. Just like on Monday, 841

Maharashtra on Tuesday crossed the 15,000 mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 984 infections, taking the tally to 15,525. Just like on Monday, 841 of the new cases were reported in the 24 hours before the announcement, while the remaining 143 were over the past few days, as per the Central government’s directive to bring the data at par with the national figures on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state government said.

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State capital Mumbai is nearing the 10,000-cases mark with a total of 9,945 cases, including the 635 new infections on Tuesday.

Maharashtra breached the 10,000 mark on April 30, 53 days since the first case on March 9. The state took five days to cross the next 5,000. India’s worst-hit state has been witnessing a rapid rise in cases over the past few days. In the past ten days, since April 26, 7,897 cases and 299 deaths have been recorded across the state. Mumbai has seen 4,455 cases and 196 deaths in the period.

The state also reported 34 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, taking the toll to 617. Mumbai saw 26 deaths on Tuesday. Of the other deaths, six were in Pune and one each in Aurangabad and Kolhapur. At least 14 of the patients who died on Tuesday were above 60 years of age, while 28 had high-risk comorbidities. The mortality rate in the state stood at 4.01%, down from 7.21% on April 12, but the number of deaths is increasing, with 299 deaths in the past ten days. The country’s mortality rate hovers around 3.23%.

On Tuesday, the state directed district collectors and municipal commissioners to concentrate on containment zones as their monitoring is expected to become more difficult. “There are complaints of crowding in many places after liquor and other non-essential shops were allowed to operate. Restricting the spread from red and containment zones will become more important after the relaxations. The clampdown in containment zones, especially in MMR and PMR should not be relaxed at any cost,” district authorities have been directed. Late on Tuesday, the Mumbai civic body issued a notification, saying liquor shops and non-essential shops will not be allowed in the city, a move to prevent crowding.

According to officials, although chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed district authorities to contain the virus by May-end, full containment by then is looking difficult. “He has set a target and asked authorities to ensure strictest monitoring under the principle of 3 Ts (tracing, testing and treatment) in containment areas. He has also asked them to focus on shrinking containment zones to neutralise the areas. Though the cases are not expected to come to nil so soon, we expect the downward trend to begin by then,” said an official.

The official said that though there are various projections about the graph of the cases, the government expects the downward trend to begin in the next two-three weeks.

Dr TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said, “Almost all the contacts of the patients are traced and will be quarantined in the next ten days. During this period, the rate of the cases will move northward and once two weeks of quarantine is over, we expect a drastic fall by the end of this month.”

Officials said the state government has set a target of May 31 to flatten the curve to ensure that the spread is contained and the lockdown in Mumbai, Pune and other cities is ended at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the state government issued a clarification on timings of shops and establishments, saying that there would be no restrictions on timings unless directed by the municipal commissioner and district collectors. “All shops and markets, which are allowed to remain open as per the order, shall function according to their timings. However, municipal commissioners in MMR and PMR, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad and district collectors in other areas will have rights to decide on the timings in case there is need of regulating these commercial activities.

“There were too many authorities issuing orders without any uniformity on timing and days at the local level. This order brings clarity,” said Bhushan Gagarani, principal secretary, Maharashra government.

The state government, in the wake of the partial relaxations for the shops and establishments given from Monday, had received complaints about too many restrictions. In some areas, police were regulating the shops without any reason and it was leading to crowding in the areas.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the recovery rate in Maharashtra has improved. “As many as 354 patients were sent home after they fully recovered from the infection. This was the highest single-day number since the first patient was reported on March 9. We are conducting more than 7,000 tests in 45 laboratories daily and the number is highest in the country,” he said.

In the past 24 hours, the state has carried out 6,561 coronavirus tests and 841 people have tested positive, which is 12.81% of the total people tested. The number of tests in the state touched 1,82,884 on Tuesday. 1,67,205 of them were negative. 1,99,182 people are currently under home quarantine, while 12,456 are under institutional quarantine. 11,629 teams of health workers have screened 50.81 lakh people for suspected infection, after they came in contact with patients. 2,819 patients have fully recovered from various hospitals, after testing positive in the past six weeks.

Meanwhile, some district and municipal authorities have been imposing restrictions on the movement of people from Mumbai, the worst-hit city, to its jurisdiction. Ulhasnagar and Kalyan- Dombivli municipal corporations have issued orders to the citizens working in Mumbai to arrange for accommodations near their workplaces.

According to the officials from the state government, collectors of many districts like Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg have refused to issue permissions for citizens from Mumbai to enter the districts.