State inches towards 20,000 Covid-19 cases

Maharashtra on Friday inched closer to the bleak 20,000 mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases as it reported 1,089 new infections, taking the tally to 19,063.

Maharashtra on Friday inched closer to the bleak 20,000 mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases as it reported 1,089 new infections, taking the tally to 19,063. The state also reported 37 deaths, taking the toll to 731.

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Mumbai reported 748 infections and 25 deaths on Friday, bringing its case count to 12,142 and toll to 462. The state health department has added a disclaimer to the data it released, saying that 146 patients from Mumbai have been added to the ICMR data of cases on its portal on Thursday, but the reconciliation of that figure is yet to be done. It has also stated that since the collection of data is a progressive process, the numbers could vary.

Of the day’s other deaths, 10 were in Pune and one each in Jalgaon and Amravati. Seventeen of the patients who died on Friday were above 60 years of age, while 16 were in the age group of 40-59 years. The remaining were below 40 years of age. Twenty-seven of them had high-risk comorbidities.

Expecting the state to cross the 20,000 mark on Saturday, it would mean the state took just nine days to go from 10,000 to 20,000 cases, after taking 53 days for the first 10,000. The mortality rate in the state stood at 3.86%, down from 7.21% on April 12, but the number of deaths is increasing, with 362 deaths in the past 10 days. The country’s mortality rate hovers around 3.35%.

In the past 24 hours, the state has carried out 10,245 coronavirus tests and 1,089 people have tested positive, which is 10.62% of the total people tested. The number of tests in the state touched 2,12,350 on Friday. 1,92,197 of them were negative. 1,39,531 people are currently under home quarantine, while 13,494 are under institutional quarantine. 13,552 teams of health workers have screened 52.64 lakh people for suspected infection, after they came in contact with patients. 3,470 patients have fully recovered from various hospitals, after testing positive in the past six weeks. State has 1,139 containment zones earmarked for the strict lockdown owing to the high number of patients. In Mumbai, the municipal corporation has broken the zones into smaller ones for better monitoring.

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.

Meanwhile, the tragic rail accident where 16 migrant workers were mowed down by a train in Aurangabad on Friday morning led to a blame game between governments. The state government has blamed it on the Centre for the delay in response to the state’s demand for special trains to evacuate migrants. But at the same time, the authorities are facing criticism within for the failure of the district administration in putting migrants in shelter camps.

“Allowing the migrants to walk on the highways and railway tracks was a big flaw in the system. They were walking for the past four-five days on the highways in the absence of means to travel back to their homes. They should have been given confidence about the travelling arrangements to return,” said a minister, requesting anonymity.

Ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have criticised BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, alleging that the states have been refusing entry to the migrants going back from Maharashtra. Congress leader and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat said on Friday that that owing to the delay in permissions from other states, the evacuation has been delayed. “We have more than 10 lakh migrant workers who want to go back to their respective states. 32 Shramik trains have so far departed from various stations in Maharashtra, but a few states are not giving permission as quickly as expected. The entire process of sending these migrants is intricate and time-consuming and needs quick response from the receiving states,” Thorat said.

An expert committee of bureaucrats, including retired IAS officers, constituted to suggest the steps for the revival of the state economy, submitted its report to the state government on Friday. The committee said it will help boost business activities. It has suggested a list to be based on activities precluding social distancing and the activities that are not very critical for economy. “The demarcation of containment zones should be done in a granular manner. Sector and activities must be opened to a maximum across non-containment zones. A robust web-based monitoring mechanism must be enabled to ensure adherence to these guidelines of lockdown,” the report believably states.

The committee has also recommended emphasis on Mumbai by launching a special project to re-start the state economy and has also suggested a special programme to support vulnerable groups like street venders, drivers, self-employed service providers. It has also recommended addressing individual sectors and activities and new business classes. Deputy chief and finance minister Ajit Pawar said that report will now be kept before the state cabinet for a final nod.