In Maharashtra, cases have been on the rise in Mumbai’s suburbs and Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Akola, and Yavatmal. With a spread in coronavirus cases in five states including Maharashtra, Delhi has made it essential for those arriving from those states to carry a negative Covid test report from Friday.
People travelling to Delhi from Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab by flights, trains, or buses will have to show a negative RT-PCR test from Saturday to March 15. Those entering Delhi by road have been exempted. States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand have announced similar restrictions on people travelling from these states.
Maharashtra has announced a state-wide ban on social, political, and religious gatherings, besides imposing fresh local lockdowns or curbs in districts like Pune and Amravati. Punjab has also seen a rise in the weekly positivity rate and the number of cases
Delhi government took the decision because, in the past week, 86 per cent of the new virus cases have emerged from these states. Officers in these states will be asked to verify Covid negative reports from tests taken up to 72 hours before the flight before allowing passengers to leave for Delhi. The new rule will be in place from Friday midnight to March 15, 12 noon. Maharashtra and Kerala alone account for 75% of the country’s current active cases after a sudden rise in new infections in recent days.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of 5,210 new cases, followed by Kerala (2,212) and Tamil Nadu (449). Maharashtra reported 18 deaths, followed by Kerala with 16 and Punjab 15, said the health ministry.
Dr Om Srivastava, a member of Covid-19 task force and the director of the infectious diseases department at Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, said that vaccinating as many as possible was the apt strategy.
Meanwhile, for the second consecutive day, more than 11,000 beneficiaries were targeted for the vaccinations. According to the data, 10,257 of the targeted 11,600 were inoculated in the last 24 hours, which indicates an 88 per cent turnout which is less than 93 per cent which was done just a day before. Moreover, the civic body has increased the vaccine centers to 34 from 31. 2,566 first-time beneficiaries were given a second dose of the vaccine on Tuesday.
However, so far, 1,79,697 HCWs and FLWs have been given the first dose and 10,385 have given the second dose of vaccines. Civic officials said they will be adding more vaccine centres in the next few days and they are expecting beneficiaries to increase. “We will be adding two new private hospitals where vaccine centres will be set up for their HCWs and FLWs. In the last seven days we have added 7 hospitals to the list,” he said.
