Keypoints:
- On Thursday, Maharashtra reported 9,844 new cases of coronavirus.
- After a gap of one week, on Wednesday, the state had logged more than 10,000 Covid cases.
- Daily count of the cases has remained below 10,000 since June 16, when the state had reported 10,107 cases of Covid.
- Maharashtra accounts for a fifth of all coronavirus cases in India.
The Delta plus cases have been looming since the past week. The weekly growth and positivity rate has been on a rise in some parts of Maharashtra districts. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has asked the districts having relatively higher caseload to not rush with easing of restrictions.
On Thursday, Maharashtra had reported 9,844 new cases of the virus and 197 deaths because of it. The State, on Wednesday, had reported more than 10,000 covid cases after one week’s gap. On June 16, the state had reported 10,107 cases. Since then the daily count has remained below 10,000.
The States’ recent concern is the weekly growth rate in 11 districts against the state average of 0.15% and the high weekly positivity rate in 10 districts against the state’s average 4.54%.
The state covid task force has clarified that there is no alert for covid third wave in 2-4 weeks. However, it has stressed that if all it comes earlier, the state needs to be prepared.
The districts with high weekly growth are Sindhudurg (1.21%), Ratnagiri (0.97%). Kolhapur (0.79%), Sangli (0.57%), Satara (0.40%), Raigad (0.39%). Palghar (0.24%), Solapur (0.21%), Ahmednagar (0.19%), Beed (0.19%) and Osmanabad (0.17%).
Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has said that there should be no hurry in relaxing the covid restrictions. On Thursday, the CM directed the state authorities to focus on the 7 districts in the state where there is a relatively high infection count. He has asked the officials to increase the testing and vaccination in these districts. He added that, considering the threat of the spread of the virus, the local administration should not take any chances.
Thackeray spoke to the collectors of Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Hingoli districts which are logging a high number of cases, he said that the state health department should plan about making oxygen beds available along with ICU beds and setting up field hospitals in all districts keeping an eye on the possibility of a third wave. He also said that upgrading the health infrastructure is necessary in view of the ongoing second wave along with the Delta plus variant and the threat of the third wave.
On Wednesday, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that 21 cases of Delta plus variant of Covid have been found in seven districts of the state. The districts include nine in Ratnagiri, seven in Jalgaon, two in Mumbai and one case each in Palghar, Thane and Sindhudurg districts. He also said that all the Delta Plus variant cases are being minutely observed. He added that the state government is also conducting aggressive contact tracing in order to curb the spread of the virus.
