The Maharashtra government on Wednesday capped the prices of Covid-19 tests in the state amid rising cases, and the Health Ministry’s recent recommendation of increasing testing in areas experiencing high infections.
While RT-PCR tests cannot cost an upwards of Rs 500 at collection centres anymore, at Covid centres, quarantine and isolation centres, the limit has been set to Rs 600, and Rs 800 if the test is being conducted from one’s residence, ANI reported. Rapid antigen tests will now cost only Rs 150.
Maharashtra on Wednesday reported an almost 40,000-case surge in 24 hours. A total of 39,544 new Covid-19 cases, 23,600 discharges and 227 deaths were registered in the state. This is the state’s second-highest single-day rise in infection tally since the pandemic began, a health official said. With this, the state’s cumulative caseload mounted to 28,12,980.
Lockdown or Not?
Meanwhile, sources told CNN-News18 that the state government may issue a new set of ‘stricter’ Covid Standard of Proceedures (SOPs) to control infections by April 1 or 2. They added that the state may not see a total lockdown, but district-wise stringent restrictions and containment zones.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has asked officials to prepare the fresh SOPs. While Thackeray had directed the administrative machinery to prepare for a complete lockdown, there has been a severe pushback from both the MVA allies – NCP and Congress. According to them, a complete lockdown would result in economic harm.
Centre’s Warning and Suggested Methods
The Health Ministry in a briefing on Tuesday had said that tracing 25 to 30 contacts of each Covid-19 patient, proper isolation and creating larger containment zones were among steps to be taken to effectively tackle the surge.
The Niti Aayog on Tuesday had also suggested a five-pronged strategy including testing and contact tracing, for it to be able to contain the cases. “Maharashtra needs to fight better,” Dr VK Paul had said. He suggested testing, containment, contract tracing, covid appropriate behaviour and vaccination as a five-pronged approach to fight the rising coronavirus cases.
As per data provided by the Niti Aayog, Maharashtra was among the states of “concern” with a 23.44 per cent positivity rate. The data provided by Niti Aayog also showed that there are 10 districts across the country that have the highest number of Covid-19 cases and eight of them — Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nanded and Ahmednagar — are in Maharashtra.
Covid Numbers
Just three days back – on March 28 – the state had recorded 40,414 new cases, the biggest surge in cases in a day so far. On March 22, the state had crossed the 25 lakh case mark, while it went past the 27 lakh-mark on March 28.
On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported the deaths of 227 patients. This one-day fatality count is the highest for the state since October last year, which pushed the death toll to 54,649. Out of these 227 deaths, 129 had occurred in last 48 hours and 61 in the last week. Rest 37 patients had died prior to last week, he said.
A total of 23,600 patients got discharge from hospitals during the day, which took the recovery count to 24 lakh. So far, 24,00,727 people have recovered from the infection. The number of the active cases in the state is 3,56,243.
A total of 17,29,816 people are in home quarantine, while 17,863 others are in institutional quarantine. State capital Mumbai reported 5,399 new COVID-19 cases, which pushed its total to 4,14,773. It also reported 15 deaths, due to which its fatality count grew to 11,690.
Neighbouring Thane city reported 1,039 new cases, while Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation added 913 new cases, the official said. Pune city and neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad reported 4,520 and 2,214 new cases respectively. Rest of the Pune district reported 1,837 cases that indicated a surge in its rural parts.
With this, there are 2,77,218 COVID-19 cases in areas located within the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, 1,35,674 in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) limits and 1,23,370 in remaining Pune district, he said. Nashik city recorded 2,941 cases, which took its caseload to 1,17,009. Other parts of Nashik district reported 1,451 cases, which increased its total to 54,991.
Ahmednagar district reported 1,180 cases, while Jalgaon district’s caseload increased by 947 cases. In the Marathwada region, Aurangabad city reported 732 new cases, while 830 cases were found in Nanded city.
Nagpur city in Vidarbha region reported 31 deaths during the day, highest for the day in the state. It took its death toll to 2,963. As many as 1,67,078 coronavirus tests were carried out on Wednesday, which took the overall test count to 1,97,92,143.
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