As Maharashtra launches its ‘Mission Begin Again’ with further relaxations coming into force on Wednesday, authorities are apprehensive about a spike in Covid-19 cases across the state. A day ago, the state had already shot past the 800,000-mark with 15,765 new patients taking the Covid-19 case tally to 808,306.
As part of relaxations, the state government allowed inter district travel, more workforce in private and government offices, operation of hotels and lodges at the full strength.
Officials feel the spread of coronavirus in rural Maharashtra could increase with more inter-district movement. However, the state government has directed the local administration to adopt ‘Chase the Virus’ programme in September. The campaign calls for increased surveillance to trace and track high-risk contacts.
“We anticipate a spike in cases with freer movement between districts. We saw jump in cases after major relaxations were provided in May with opening up of industries and businesses. But the administrations have been asked to ramp up medical infrastructure beforehand. Besides, ‘Chase The Virus’ programme will be adopted to break the chain of transmission,” an official said, requesting anonymity.
Under the campaign, 15 people who come in close contact with a patient will be strictly put in institutional quarantine. The campaign has yielded good results in Mumbai, Malegaon and a few other locations.
Meanwhile, the state is inching towards the grim landmark of 25,000 fatalities due to Covid-19. The state, which has recorded 24,903 deaths so far, is expected to breach 25,000-mark on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Mumbai reported 1,142 cases and 35 deaths, though Pune district remained on the top in cases and fatalities. Pune city saw 1, 738 cases and 40 deaths, rural part of the district reported 776 cases and 7 fatalities, while Pimpri-Chinchwad reported 979 cases and 5 deaths.
Nagpur, Satara and Solapur districts were key contributors in new cases on Tuesday with 1, 491(22deaths), 780(17 deaths) and 467 (15 deaths) cases respectively.
The state’s active caseload stood at 198,523 as on Tuesday. The total of recovered patients reached 584,537 after 10,978 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 72.32%, against national rate of 76.63%. The number of recovered and discharged patients in Mumbai was 1,18,859 with a recovery rate of 80.88%, and active cases stood at 20,067.
