Maharashtra Coronavirus, Weather Today highlights: Maharashtra registers 10,425 new cases, tally crosses seven lakh

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday informed the Bombay High Court it was providing online education for specially-abled students across the state in special schools and training centres run by NGOs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government provided the information in an affidavit filed in response to a petition raising concerns over problems being faced by students with disabilities amid the COVID-19 lockdown which has led to closure of schools. The affidavit, filed by Dinesh Dingle, Joint Secretary, Social Justice and Special Assistance Department, said since the COVID-19 situation is still not under control and in absence of a vaccine, it would not be possible to hold physical classes for specially-abled students. (PTI)

Over 1,600 Ganesh mandals in Maharashtra's Parbhani district have not installed idols of the deity during the Ganpati festival this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been done to avoid crowds and to check the spread of the viral infection in the district, Collector Deepak Muglikar told PTI on Monday.

Last year, 1,680 Ganesh mandals registered with the district administration for conducting the celebration. This year, none of them installed the Ganesh idol, he said. The 10-day Ganesh festival this year began on Saturday under the shadow of coronavirus. 'We had appealed to people to help the administration in curtailing the Ganesh festival celebration this year. As a result, there has been no public installation of Ganesh idols in Parbhani,' the collector said. (PTI)

Maharashtra police reported 351 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day rise in cases among its personnel and officers, taking the total number of cases in the police force to 14,067. Three deaths were reported on Monday among the state cops, taking the total fatalities to 142.

Of the total confirmed among Maharashtra police, 2569 are active. At least 142 cops, including 15 officers and 127 constabulary staff have succumbed to the infection till now. 

-Inputs from Sushant Kulkarni

The number of COVID-19 cases in Thane district reached 1,15,625 on Tuesday after 860 more people tested positive for the virus, PTI quoted a senior district official as saying. He said the number of fatalities in the district rose to 3,301 after 33 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

As of now, there are 12,262 active cases in the district while 1,00,062 patients have recovered, the official said. The recovery rate in the district was 86.54 per cent while the fatality rate was 2.85 per cent.

A five-storey residential building collapsed in Mahad town of Raigad district, 170 km from Mumbai, on Monday evening, killing at least one person. While 15 people, including seven who suffered injuries, were rescued till 10 pm, district officials estimate that at least 70 people are trapped under the debris.

The top three floors of the structure, known as Tarique Garden, collapsed around 6.50 pm. Eyewitnesses said the building, which is estimated to be not more than 10 years old, began shaking with some residents managing to rush out before it collapsed. Follow Maharashtra Raigad Building Collapse Live Updates

Aurangabad's sero survey has found that 11.81 per cent of the 4,327 respondents surveyed have developed antibodies against coronavirus, PTI quoted officials as saying on Monday. The survey was conducted by local governing bodies and the health department between August 10 and 16.

"While 14.56 per cent respondents from slum areas are found to have antibodies, the same percentage in non-slum areas is 10.64 per cent," a civic official said.

The survey was based on samples collected from people of different age groups from all 115 wards in Aurangabad city. Aurangabad has reported 20,856 cases of coronavirus till Monday, with at least 634 deaths, according to district officials.

Mumbai's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,37,091 on Monday with the addition of 743 new cases, while 20 fresh deaths took the toll to 7,439, the city civic body said. The financial capital thus recorded the lowest number of deaths - 20 - since May 11, and also the second lowest single-day cases in August.

Maharashtra on Monday reported 11,015 fresh cases of COVID-19, taking its tally to 6,93,398, said a state health department official. Maharashtra on August 17 had crossed the mark of six lakh COVID-19 cases and is expected to touch the grim milestone of seven lakh infections on Tuesday. The state also reported 212 fresh deaths, taking the toll to 22,465, he said. Also, 14,219 people were discharged, pushing up the number of recoveries beyond the five lakh-mark at 5,02,490, the official said, adding the state now has 1,68,126 active cases.

Dharavi slum sprawl in Mumbai on Monday reported just two new COVID-19 cases, which is the second-lowest single-day rise so far this month, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. The cumulative tally of cases in Mumbai's biggest slum colony, once a COVID-19 hotspot, now stands at 2,713, an official said. Earlier, Dharavi had reported just one COVID-19 case on August 5. 2,370 of 2,713 cases have recovered, he said, adding that Dharavi now has only 83 active cases. (PTI)

Palghar district in Maharashtra on Sunday experienced four tremors, ranging from the magnitudes of 2.7 to 3.1, authorities said, PTI reported. No casualty or damage to property was reported. "The first tremor of 2.8 magnitude was felt at 11:39 AM, and the second of 3.0 magnitude was experienced at 5:23 pm. Another quake with the magnitude of 3.1 was felt at 6:47 pm and the fourth one was felt at 7:29 pm, which was of 2.7 magnitude," said Palghar district disaster cell chief Vivekanand Kadam. Certain parts of Palghar district had experienced a lot of seismic activity in 2018 and 2019.

The Covid-19 tally in Thane reached 1,14,765 on Monday after 881 new cases were found in the Maharashtra district, officials said. The district also reported 28 more deaths due to Covid-19, taking the total number of fatalities to 3,268. So far, Kalyan town in the district has reported the highest number of 26,623 cases, followed by Thane city-24,459 and Navi Mumbai-23,321, an official release said. The Mira Bhayander civic limits have till now reported 11,596 cases while the remaining cases are from other parts of the district. Thane city has so far reported the highest number of 787 deaths, followed by Kalyan-556 and Navi Mumbai-542. For the last two days, no death has been reported from Bhiwandi and Badlapur townships, the release said.

Following directives from the Union Home Ministry to remove restrictions on inter and intra-state movement of people and goods, the Maharashtra government is likely to lift curbs on inter-district travel and discontinue the e-pass system. The state government has already allowed inter and intra-state movement of goods and services since May 31. Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, in a tweet, said the government has taken note of the recent guidelines announced by the Centre. “Appropriate decision will be taken regarding the same after discussion with Hon’ble CM & DCM,” he added. However, government sources said that the QR code system, which is similar to e-pass, will be retained for the Mumbai suburban local trains. “This issue has not been raised at the moment. So, it will remain as it is,” said a bureaucrat.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has introduced a pandemic management module in its curriculum in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. The module – for first to fifth-year undergraduate students – will help them better understand an outbreak, as well as prepare for its management in community and newer treatment protocol. The Union government had set up a nine-member expert committee in July to draft the module. Members of the committee said that the government has realised there is a need to prepare future doctors to understand social, legal and medical implications of an outbreak.

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The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, on Sunday used virtual reality (VR) to hold its 58th convocation amid the coronavirus outbreak. The programme, where the animated digital avatars of the institute’s senate members shared the stage and personalised avatars of students given away certificates, was telecast on DD Sahyadri and social media platforms. A statement released by the institute said: “The institute thought it best to arrange such a VR-convocation for the graduating students as we did not wish to put their health at risk but at the same time, we did not wish to deprive them of the sense of achievement and pride of passing out of India’s premier engineering Institute.” Personalised avatars of each graduate, it stated, received the degree certificate from the digital avatar of director Subhasis Chaudhuri, while all medal winners received their medals from the personalised avatar of the chief guest, Professor Duncan Haldane, co-recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics and a professor at Princeton University. The digital avatars of the institute’s senate members, who were seen sharing the stage, had been videographed individually and assembled digitally, the institute said.

A special audit of 17 private hospitals in Thane has found Covid-19 patients were overcharged to the tune of Rs 1.82 crore for treatment. Following this, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has directed all the hospitals to refund excess amount to the patients. Between July 10 and August 21, eight teams of auditors were appointed following a string of complaints received by the civic body regarding inflated bills. An auditor said the 17 hospitals submitted 4,106 bills of Covid-19 patients. Of them, 3,347 have been scrutinised and at least 1,362 bills were found inflated. “The total excess amount is Rs 1.82 crore,” the auditor added. Check out the names of the hospitals here.

A first trimester miscarriage in a Mumbai resident is being linked to the SARS-CoV-2 virus after tests found the infection had travelled into the umbilical cord, placenta and possibly caused inflammation in the foetus. “To our knowledge, this is the first case demonstrating persistence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a tissue weeks after clearance in the throat swabs… the virus not just survived in the tissue but is replicative in the placental cells,” stated a research paper submitted last week by the National Institute of Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH) – a research arm of the Indian Council of Medical Research – in collaboration with ESIS (Employees’ State Insurance Scheme) hospital at Kandivali.

Even as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said he wished that people remained healthy by following all precautions so that the new “jumbo” Covid-19 treatment facility would remain “unused”, he reiterated that the state government would not remain ignorant of the pandemic situation and be prepared to handle a “second wave” of the infection. Thackeray inaugurated the first jumbo Covid facility for Pune at College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) through videoconferencing. It has 800 beds, including 600 oxygen and 200 ICU beds. “Pune has its first jumbo facility set up within a short span of time. Also, one to two jumbo facilities would be inaugurated within a week,” he said. “It is being speculated that the vaccine will be ready by December, which means everyone has to continue to live in present conditions for the next four months,” he added. 

As Covid-19 cases continue to surge, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday appealed to people to remain extra careful during festivals and rains in view of the pandemic. As many as 10,441 fresh cases were reported on Sunday, taking the tally to 6,82,383 while the death toll stood at 22,253. Follow our blog for all the latest updates.