Maharashtra's active Covid-19 cases heads towards 1 lakh mark as government plans 'augmented restrictions'

As Covid-19 cases continue to surge in the state, Maharashtra is set to cross the one-lakh mark of active patients even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is contemplating coming out with “augmented restrictions” rather than a lockdown.

There are a total of 87,505 active cases in the state, according to the Integrated Diseases Surveillance Programme of the Public Health Department. The total number of active cases has surged to above 85,000-plus from a mere 7,000 just a fortnight ago.

During the day, the state recorded 26,538 cases and 8 deaths, taking the progressive total to 67,57,032 and 1,41,581, respectively.

“The increase in cases is exponential,” state public health and family welfare minister Rajesh Tope said.

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Amid the growing cases, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar undertook a review of the situation with top officials and members of the Covid-19 Task Force.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was also briefed about the situation and is expected to approve the new guidelines that would come in force.

Asked whether the state would impose a lockdown, Tope said: “The Task Force has come out with a new terminology suggesting ‘augmented restrictions’…the need for a lockdown has not arisen yet.”

“A lockdown means totally shutting off all activities which we are not going to do. However, the challenge at the moment is to make sure that the restrictions already announced are implemented properly,” said Tope.

When asked on the home quarantine period, he told reporters it would be for seven days. According to him, monitoring of home quarantine and home isolation is a major challenge. He also said that because of increasing infections the pressure on laboratories for RT-PCR tests is very high. "We are looking at more Rapid Antigen Tests," he said.

Meanwhile,143 new Covid-19 cases were detected among passengers of the Cordelia cruise ship that returned from Goa to Mumbai a day ago following the spread of the virus aboard the luxury ship. Earlier, 66 passengers out of a total 2,000 passengers on the ship had tested positive for Covid-19. This took the total count of infections on the ship to 209.

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