These 2 Maharashtra Districts May See Total Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Continue to Plateau

A Central team of experts that visited Covid-affected Kolhapur and Sangli in Maharashtra have suggested a total lockdown in the two districts. The Central team expressed concern as to why the transmission was not stopping in the two districts despite a series of measures in place.

According to a report in The Indian Express state health authorities have said they were yet to receive a report from the Central team members.

“There are 10 districts which have a higher positivity rate as compared to the rest of the state and the Central team that visited some of them has emphasised on measures like testing, contact tracing, and vaccination…We are following all protocols,” Rajesh Tope, state health minister, reportedly said.

The state health minister added that he would be visiting Delhi and would reiterate the state’s request to Centre for the supply more Covid-19 vaccine doses.

According to Dr Shashank Joshi, expert with the state Covid task force, the trend of coronavirus infection is picking up in districts such as Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Pune rural and even Ahmednagar and Nandurbar (which are showing upward trend due to a low denominator).

“The entire Western belt of Maharashtra is a cause of concern…We have an active virus in circulation and something is not going right,” Dr Joshi added.

Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: India Clocks 30,093 Fresh Cases in 24 Hrs, Lowest in 4 Months; Canada Suspends Flights from India Till Aug 21

Maharashtra’s coronavirus caseload climbed to 62,20,207 on Monday after 6,017 people tested positive for the infection, the lowest since February 22, while the death toll jumped to 1,27,097 as 66 patients succumbed to COVID-19, a health department official said. The fresh COVID-19 deaths were the lowest in the last one week.

The official said as many as 13,051 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, pushing the number of recovered cases to 59,93,401. The state now has 96,375 active COVID-19 cases.

Maharashtra’s COVID-19 recovery rate is 96.35 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.04 per cent, the official said. Significantly, Hingoli, Wardha and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra did not report any new coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours.

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