At Thane Public Library, which reopened Thursday. (Express Photo: Deepak Joshi)Maharashtra Coronavirus News Highlights : Maharashtra’s COVID-19 tally on Saturday increased to 15,86,321 with 10,259 new cases, said a health official. The state also reported 250 deaths, taking its death toll to 41,965, he said. A total of 14,238 patients were discharged after treatment, taking the tally of recovered people to 13,58,606. There are 1,85,270 active patients in the state now.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said gymnasiums and fitness centres in the state will be allowed to reopen from Dussehra, which falls on October 25. “Gymnasiums and fitness centres are for the welfare of citizens, so care should be taken to ensure that there is no virus spread. The SoPs should be strictly followed,” he said.
To manage heavy passenger traffic in the upcoming festive season, the Western Railway has announced that it will run 12 special trains that would be operated on various routes during the time of Dussehra and Diwali . Of these 12 pairs of special trains, five pairs will run from Bandra Terminus, two pairs each from Indore and Udhna and one pair each from Okha, Porbandar and Gandhidham stations, the WR said in a release on Friday. All the trains will run as special trains on special fare.
THE CHHATRAPATI Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has extended RT-PCR test facility for passengers departing from the airport.
Till now, the airport had stationed testing kiosk for international passengers arriving from other countries, in line with the Civil Aviation Ministry directives. From Thursday, the new testing facility has been extended for departing passengers and their family members who come to see them off. Read more
Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally on Saturday increased to 15,86,321 with 10,259 new cases, said a health official. The state also reported 250 deaths, taking its death toll to 41,965, he said. A total of 14,238 patients were discharged after treatment, taking the tally of recovered people to 13,58,606. There are 1,85,270 active patients in the state now.
Mumbai city reported 1,791 new cases during the day, which pushed its overall case count to 2,40,335, while its death toll rose to 9,739 with 47 new fatalities. Pune city added 417 COVID-19 cases, raising its case tally to 1,67,823, while 22 deaths took the toll to 3,888. (PTI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said gymnasiums and fitness centres in the state will be allowed to reopen from Dussehra, which falls on October 25. During a virtual meeting with representatives of gyms and fitness centres, the chief minister said group activities like zumba and yoga and steam and sauna facilities will not be allowed. "Gymnasiums and fitness centres are for the welfare of citizens, so care should be taken to ensure that there is no virus spread. The SoPs should be strictly followed," he said. Thackeray said the state government was going slow on lifting COVID-19 restrictions because there should be no complacency. (PTI)
15 new cases of novel coronavirus reported in the Dharavi area of Mumbai on Saturday, taking the total number of cases to 3,400 in the area, including 140 active cases and 2,954 discharges, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
In a significant move towards India potentially getting a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year, the country’s top drug regulator has approved a request by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to conduct mid- to late-stage human trials for the Russian Sputnik V vaccine candidate. The Hyderabad-headquartered firm, which had entered into an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) last month to help receive approvals for the candidate in India, will now move ahead with an adaptive phase 2/3 clinical trial of the candidate here. “This will be a multi-center and randomized controlled study, which will include safety and immunogenicity study,” Dr Reddy’s told the Bombay Stock Exchange in a filing on Saturday evening. It is unclear at this stage how many participants will be enrolled in this trial and how many sites will be studying the vaccine’s safety and ability to help develop an immune response against Covid-19. Read more here
The Mumbai airport on Saturday started an express coronavirus infection test facility for departing and non-departing passengers. The RT-PCR test facility is functional from October 15, the airport said in a release. Initially launched for arriving international transit passengers in line with the Civil Aviation Ministry's directives, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has now further extended the availability of the test facility for passengers departing from the airport as well, the airport operator said in a release.
The continuing decline in new infections of novel coronavirus has ensured that the number of active cases has now dropped below eight lakh, a level that previously existed around the end of August. On Friday, only about 62,000 new cases were detected, lowest in the last four days, while more than 70,000 people were declared to have recovered. The trend of recoveries exceeding new cases has now continued uninterrupted for the last 14 days.
Active cases had touched a peak on September 17, and there has been steady decline after that. The number has reduced by almost 2.25 lakh in this last one month. During this time, 29,800 deaths have also happened, which would account for about 13 per cent of the reduction in active cases. The remaining 87 per cent has happened because the far lesser number of people are now falling sick compared to those who are recovering. (Read our explainer here)
All places of worship are closed in Maharashtra due to the coronavirus outbreak and devotees can have online darshan of the Tulja Bhavani Temple in Tuljapur, some 260 kilometres from here, Osmanabad Collector Kaustubh Divegaonkar said on Friday.
The temple attracts devotees during Navratri and the directive was given against this backdrop, officials said. They said devotees should visit a web link provided by the temple administration and participate in prayers through online mode. (PTI)
India reported 62,212 new Covid-19 cases and 837 deaths in the 24 hours ending 9 am Saturday. The country’s tally of 74,32,681 cases included 7,95,087 active cases, 65,24,596 recoveries and 1,12,998 deaths.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday instructed the administration to remain alert considering a prediction of heavy rainfall again for some days in the state. He also instructed that COVID-19-related precautions should be taken while carrying out relief work in flood- affected areas and masks and sanitisers be made available. (PTI)
The number of COVID-19 cases in Thane district reached 1,98,259 on Friday after 1,260 people were detected with the infection, while 32 deaths took the toll to 5,015, an official said.The recovery rate in the district is 89.98 per cent (1,78,402 recovered), mortality rate is 2.53 per cent (5,015 deaths) and active cases stand at 7.49 per cent of total or 14,842, he said. (PTI)
The number of COVID-19 cases in Pune increased by 1,072 in the last 24 hours, while the death toll rose by 41, an official said on Friday. A total of 681 people were discharged during this period, he added. The district's caseload is now 3,12,699, including 7,376 deaths, he said. "Of the 1,072 cases, 489 were in PMC limits, which now has 1,56,633 cases, and 228 in Pimpri Chinchwad, where the overall count stands at 85,114," the official said. (PTI)
The Western Railway has announced that it will run 12 special trains that would be operated on various routes for the festive season of Dussehra and Diwali to manage the extra rush of passengers. Of these 12 pairs of special trains, five pairs will run from Bandra Terminus, two pairs each from Indore and Udhna and one pair each from Okha, Porbandar and Gandhidham stations, the WR said in a release on Friday."All the trains will run as special trains on special fare," it said. (With PTI)
Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally on Friday increased to 15,76,062 with 11,447 new cases coming to light, said a state health official. The state also reported 306 fatalities during the day, taking death toll to 41,502, he said. A total of 13,885 patients were discharged, taking the tally of recovered persons to 13,44,368. The number of active patients in the state stands at 1,89,715. Mumbai city reported 1,823 cases during the day, which pushed its overall case count to 2,38,544, while its death toll rose to 9,638 with 37 deaths being reported on Friday. Pune city added 476 COVID-19 cases, raising its tally to 1,67,406, while 44 deaths took toll to 3,856.
At least 119 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while four died of the infection in Maharashtra's Amravati district on Friday, an official said. The detection of fresh infections and casualties have taken the tally in the district to 15,309 and toll to 347, the official said. Following the discharge of 139 patients from various hospitals during the day, the number of recoveries in the region rose to 13,702 and the recovery rate stood at 89.50 per cent, he said. The district currently has 1,260 active cases, of which 608 patients are admitted to hospitals here, nine are in Nagpur and 643 are under home isolation, the official added.
The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients in Maharashtra's Thane district is nearing 90 per cent, while the death rate stands at 2.53 per cent, an official said on Friday. Of the 1,97,000 cases of COVID-19 reported in the district so far, 1,77,206 patients have recovered from the infection and 4,983 have died of it, the official said. The district currently has 14,810 active cases, he said. As many as 1,288 tested positive for the infection, while 36 succumbed to it on Thursday, the official said. The recovery rate in the civic limits of Kalyan, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Amberanth and Badlapur has crossed 90 per cent each, he said.
The Maharashtra government on Friday notified that it is opening up suburban train services for women in Mumbai. In an official press release, the govt said, "It is requested that local train services may be made available to all ladies from 11 am to 3 pm and again from 7 pm onwards till the end of local services for the day, with effect from October 17, 2020 in Mumbai and MMR region." So far, Mumbai's suburban train services could be accessed only by essential service providers and special exemptees.
A day after the Maharashtra government allowed libraries to reopen, ‘Vaachan Prerna Din’ events, organised every year to inspire reading habits, were organised by several government libraries to commemorate the birth anniversary of former President of India and scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam — but without an audience. The state Directorate of Libraries also released Thursday the standard operating protocols (SOPs) detailing precautions to be followed for the reopening.
As per the SOPs issued by the Directorate of Libraries, readers will be urged to return or borrow books once in five days. Books received from readers will be kept for two days in a “book isolation box” before putting it in the borrowing section. Libraries have been also instructed to provide email and WhatsApp facilities for book requests. If Covid-19 cases rise after reopening of any library, the management will have to inform the local administration and the district library officer, following which the library will be closed down for some time. Read Abha Goradia's report
India reported 63,371 Covid-19 cases and 895 deaths in the 24 hours ending 8 am on Friday. With this, the total number of infections in the country rose to 73,70,469, while the number of fatalities increased to 1,12,161. At present, India has 8,04,528 active cases, while as many as 64,53,780 people have recovered, the Union Health Ministry said. Maharashtra has 15.64 lakh cases, the highest number of cases per state in the country.