No new cases of Covid-19 were recorded on Sunday morning in Maharashtra as the tally of Covid-19 cases has remained 3,648 cases and 211 deaths, state health department officials said.
After a relatively lower number of news cases on Thursday and Friday, the state recorded new 328 Covid-19 cases on Saturday.
Mumbai, which has the highest number of cases in the state, recorded 184 new cases on Saturday taking the tally to 2,268.The city’s death toll is now 126 according to state health department’s data.
The sprawling slum of Dharavi saw a spike in infections on Saturday with 17 new cases and one death. An 80-year-old woman from Dharavi who died on Friday at Sion Hospital was only confirmed on Saturday that she was Covid-19 positive.
Maharashtra which has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the country also designated another 25 hospitals dedicated to treating those infected. The total number of dedicated hospitals for Covid-19 in Maharashtra has now risen to 55 with a capacity of 6,660 beds.
Health department officials also said that the state government also received permission from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to start six new government laboratories for Covid-19 tests. The total number of laboratories in the state now goes to 42, which includes government and private sector. New testing facilities are going to come up at Beed, Nanded, Gondia, Kolhapur, Baramati and Jalgaon.
Though the mortality rate of the state is seeing a gradual decline, it is still double of the country’s rate. The mortality rates on April 14, 15, 16 and 17 were 6.84%, 6.61%, 6.41% and 6.05%. Forty six people died in these three days.
“The mortality rate is slowly decreasing because of early influx of patients. Earlier, most patients died between the first and third days of admission. Now, it happens six to seven days after admission in critical cases. When they are in hospital, we can monitor their lungs, blood-pressure, etc,” said TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education & Research.
The Maharashtra government also decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 2,000 to all registered construction workers in the state to tide over the crisis during the lockdown to break the chain of coronavirus infections. Only those workers who are registered with the state’s Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (BOCWWB) will be eligible to get the monetary assistance. Maharashtra has 22.70 lakh registered construction workers but only 12.18 lakh who are active, will get the benefit of the decision, said S C Srirangam, the board’s secretary and chief executive officer.
Meanwhile, The Maharashtra government issued orders that state government employees would start working from Monday with 10% strength. The government has given exemption to women employees. Earlier on March 23 the state government had issued orders that it would operate with only 5% of its staff.
The Mumbai Police, which has recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the Maharashtra Police department, has kept its staff with health issues away from the containment zones where the chances of them getting infected by the pandemic are relatively high.
As of Saturday, a total of 37 police personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 out of which 18 are from Mumbai, 17 from Thane and one each from Pune city and Mumbai Government Railway Police (GRP), said Vinayak Deshmukh, assistant inspector general, law and order, Maharashtra Police.
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