Virus cases cross 1,000 in Maharashtra; 64 deaths

Maharashtra, on Tuesday, breached the 1,000-mark with 150 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases taking the tally to 1,018, the highest for any Indian state. Tamil

Maharashtra, on Tuesday, breached the 1,000-mark with 150 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases taking the tally to 1,018, the highest for any Indian state. Tamil Nadu has 690 positive cases, while Delhi reported 525 cases until 9 pm on April 7.

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This is the steepest one-day rise in Maharashtra since the outbreak, state health department officials said.

Of the 150 new cases reported on Tuesday, 116 are from Mumbai, which accounts for 642 cases, the highest among Indian cities. Pune recorded 18 cases on Tuesday, while Nagpur, Aurangabad and Ahmednagar reported two each.

Maharashtra recorded 12 Covid-19 related deaths on Tuesday, taking the state’s death toll to 64. Six of the 12 deaths were reported from Mumbai, followed by three in Pune and one each in Nagpur, Thane and Satara. According to the state health department, 34,695 people have been put in home quarantine, while 4,008 are in institutional quarantine.

The department said 20,877 tests (5,564 of them in private laboratories) have been carried out so far across the state, resulting in 1,018 positive cases.

Seventy-nine patients have been discharged after complete recovery, officials said.

The rise in numbers necessitated a state cabinet meeting on Tuesday, held via video conference as some of the ministers were in their constituencies.

Senior government officials told HT that ministers pressed for additional testing facilities to understand the spread of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. “The government is likely to seek permission for more labs for testing,” an official said. A private laboratory can start testing only if it is certified by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).

In March, Maharashtra had applied for and received permission to set up at least seven private laboratories, in addition to the National Institute of Virology in Pune and Kasturba Hospital Lab in Mumbai. “We have increased the number to more than 1,500 tests per day,” a state government official said.

According to a minister who attended the cabinet meeting, chief minister (CM( Uddhav Thackeray said the lockdown in the state is unlikely to be lifted on April 14.

He said, quoting Thackeray, “The lockdown has helped Maharashtra contain the spread of the virus. Maharashtra was the first to impose restrictions in the second week of March. When the number of patients is rising, we cannot lift the lockdown next week.”

Thackeray also clarified that even if the government decides to partially lift the lockdown, after reviewing the situation early next week, it would be within districts and only for unaffected areas. He said that the district borders will remain sealed and the resumption of train services was unlikely.

A senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said on Tuesday that the financial capital’s high numbers are also because the city has tested around 10,500 people since the outbreak. “We have screened nearly 1.5 million people and conducted around 10,500 Sars-Cov-2 tests. This is why the numbers are high,” the official said, requesting anonymity. Mumbai recorded 99, 81 and 68 cases on April 4, 5, and 6 respectively.

“Out of the six deceased patients, four had pre-existing respiratory illness, hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and other comorbidities,” a city health officer said. “One of six patients had died on March 30, but the cause was confirmed only on Tuesday. None of the deceased had a history of international travel.”

According to data compiled by the state’s Medical Education and Drugs Department, Maharashtra’s Covid-19 mortality rate is 5.99%. A senior Mantralaya official said that the cabinet also discussed how Kerala managed to keep its mortality rate low. Kerala had 336 Covid-19 cases until Tuesday, but reported only two deaths. Officials added that the state health department is considering getting in touch with the Kerala government to understand its measures to keep the mortality rate low.

A few cabinet colleagues expressed concerns over the high mortality rate. Thackeray however, said the high rate was because of the underlying illnesses the deceased had. “Out of the 52 who died, only 11 had no underlying illnesses. Rest of them had many chronic and serious ailments. The percentage of viral infection against the state population is 0.077% and hence the situation can be said to be under control. The high mortality rate and rise in cases is due to the exclusion of countries like Dubai from the protocol issued by the Centre for monitoring at airports. The initial cases had a travel history of Dubai and had the country been included in the protocol list for monitoring, the cases would have been lesser. Similarly, the state has the highest number of people with the Tablighi Markaj programme, leading to a sharp rise in cases,” a presentation made before the cabinet stated.

The presentation before the cabinet members was made by chief secretary Ajoy Mehta, public health secretary Pradeep Vyas and Mumbai municipal commisioner Praveen Pardeshi.

The cabinet members also demanded more number of testing laboratories at the district level. The ministers were told that the laboratories are approved only after complying with strict protocols and the capacity of 5,500 samples a day was sufficient in the current situation. Pardeshi apprised the cabinet about the aggressive testing being done in Mumbai through portable testing centres and the rapid testing mechanism.

The state cabinet on Tuesday decided to widen the scope of thepublic distribution system (PDS) in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak to distribute rice and wheat to orange-card holder families, left out of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) benefits. Around 3.08 lakh people are expected to get 5-kg food grains for May and June at subsidised rates of ₹8 for wheat and ₹12 for rice per kg.

Around 7 crore people, holding 1.60 lakh ration cards, get food grains at ₹2 (wheat) and ₹3 (rice), under the NFSA. 25 lakh card holders get 35kg of food grains a month, while the remaining 1.25 lakh card holders get 5kg per person per month. The families are with an annual income of ₹59,000 in urban areas and ₹44,000 in rural areas. There are about 71 lakh families that hold orange cards, like the one covered in the NFSA, but exceed the income limit and have been excluded from the PDS. The state cabinet on Tuesday decided to include these families under the PDS, by announcing to avail them the grains at subsidised rate.

“The 71 lakh families or 3.08 lakh people, who had been left out of the scope of NFSA, will now get the food grains at subsidised rates. It will burden us with an additional ₹250 crore in two months,” said an official from the food and civil supplies department. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi and demanded that the additional stock of 1.54 lakh metric tonnes of the grains be provided at the minimum support price in the backdrop of the Covid-19 outbreak. The state government is expected to buy the wheat at ₹23 a kg and rice at ₹27 a kg to distribute through the PDS to the additional families holding the orange cards.

State cabinet also decided to widen the scope of the Shiv Bhojan Thali, the meal thali made available at ₹5 through more than 281 centres, by taking it to the tehsil level. The state government has decided to set more such centres in rural areas to ensure that the poor get meals easily available. Currently, around 61,000 such thalis are made available through centres per day to the poor.