Maharashtra: Another day of over 2,000 cases in state; tally 37,136

Maharashtra on Tuesday continued to record more than 2,000 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases as it registered 2,127 new infections, taking the total to 37,136.

Maharashtra on Tuesday continued to record more than 2,000 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases as it registered 2,127 new infections, taking the total to 37,136. According to officials, reconciliation of figures with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal is still in process, resulting in a difference in the cumulative figures.

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The state also registered 76 deaths, bringing its toll to 1,325. However, 32 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, while the remaining 44 happened between April 30 and May 16, the state health department said.

Of the new cases, Mumbai recorded 1,411 new infections, taking the city tally to 22,746. while Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pune recorded 112, 122 and 139 new infections, respectively.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra also saw its highest number of discharges in a single day with 1,202 people sent home after recovery, the state health department said. So far, 9,639 people have recovered and discharged from the hospitals. State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the recovery rate of Maharashtra is 25%.

The state has added 21,020 Covid-19 cases in the past 14 days. It also clocked over 2,000 cases in the past three consecutive days. An average of 1,500 cases daily is added during the two-week period.

But the health department official denied that the state has reached the community transmission stage yet as the growth in cases is not exponential.

A senior health department official said that another incubation cycle is underway, which has led to a spike in number. “There is another 14-day incubation cycle till around May 31. The spike will come under control and the curve could start to go down after that,” the official, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday announced categorisation of various areas into red and non-red zones for the purpose of allowing or restricting business and other activities during the fourth phase of the lockdown till May 31 in view of the coronavirus pandemic. It also issued guidelines for these zones that would come into effect from May 22. Earlier, districts in the state were categorized into three zones-- red, orange and green.

The municipal corporations within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) —that includes Mumbai, Thane and the surrounding areas — as well as civic bodies of Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola and Amravati fall in the red zone, the order said. While the remaining areas of the state are categoriSed as non-red zone and have been give more relaxation in terms of opening up businesses and other activities.

Tope said that the restrictions in red zone have not been relaxed as the cases are increasing on a daily basis. “In red zone, we have kept curbs as they were because today’s cases are reported from several containment areas of the red zone. Public transport, Metro, inter-district buses, among others, are still not operational across both categories. The only change in the red zone is that people can now order food for takeaway from restaurants in the red zone,” Tope said in a Facebook Live address.

While the revised guidelines don’t allow malls and shops selling non-essentials to open in red zones, e-commerce activity for essential and non-essential items is allowed. Private offices are not allowed to reopen in red zones and only 5 % of the staff are allowed in government offices.

The state government is currently focused on reviving economic activities in the state that had come to a grinding halt in the past 50 days. Industries and other business activities have been opened in the non-red zone area of the state.

“Industries should begin. And therefore in the non-red zone, we have opened up mostly all industries and other businesses. However, precautions have to be taken; social distancing, masks etc. Bus travel within the district is allowed. Within the non-red zone, private vehicle movement is also allowed, except between 7pm and 7am. Restaurants, shops, workplaces, among others, in non-red zone can remain open,” Tope said. However, public gatherings, religious gatherings are still not allowed in the non-red zone too.

The minister said that barring Mumbai, the health infrastructure to treat Covid-19 patients is up to the mark and there is no shortage of the beds. “Even in Mumbai, the ICU beds currently are equal to existing number of patients. Keeping the potential shortage in mind, we are augmenting the bed availability in the city to 1 lakh beds from the existing capacity of 60,000 with the help of additional facilities at BKC, Worli and Goregaon. The bed capacity in the Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) in the city will be ramped up to 15,000 and the number of ICU beds will rise to 2,000. We have issued the notification, making it mandatory to the private hospitals to use 80% of their beds for Covid-19 patients at the rates decided by rate control laws,” he said.

Tope said that the state was roping in private medical practitioners to ramp up the availability of the expertise. He said that the committee headed by the chief secretary has been coordinating with private doctors and their organisations for roping in their services ahead of the monsoon.

The minister said that the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has given them permission to fill up vacant posts in public health, medical education and health departments of the civic bodies and the process will soon begin. “We will recruit the doctors and health workers, including 17,000 in the public health department, in the next couple of months,” he said.

Tope asserted that although the number of patients is on the continuous rise, there was no need to worry as the mortality rate has dropped to 3.2% and the doubling rate has improved to more than 14 days. “The recovery rate, too, has reached 25% as 9,639 patients have been discharged till today after their full recovery. The high rate of addition of the patients is owing to the highest number of tests being conducted in the state. We have a daily capacity of 15,000 tests through 67 laboratories,” he said.

He has also warned people against the ill treatment accorded to patients or the people travelling from the cities like Mumbai and Pune.