Restaurants, bars, malls, religious places will be closed

The Maharashtra Government on Friday announced night curfew from 6 pm to 6 am in Pune for seven days beginning from Saturday, even as the “active” cases jumped to an alarming 70,851.

On a day when Pune recorded 9,126 fresh infections and 30 more deaths, the decision to impose night curfew in Pune from 6 pm to 6 am for seven days was taken at a meeting chaired by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

In a related development, Maharashtra recorded a new high of 47,913 fresh infections, while 481 more people died of the pandemic in various parts of the State.

Talking to media persons after the review meeting, Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao said during the night curfew period, restaurants, bars, malls and religious places will be closed. However, restaurants have been allowed to provide food parcel and delivery services until 10 pm.

Rao said it had been decided to take some measures keeping in mind the goal of causing minimal hassle to citizens. “We have chosen measure that will help us slow down the spread of the virus. A golden mean was settled upon,” he said,

Rao said during the next seven days, the authorities would not allow any social, cultural or political events, except marriages and last rites.

“For last rites, a maximum of 20 persons will be allowed and for marriages the limit will be 50... We have started an aggressive vaccination campaign. We will continue it to increase the daily vaccinations till we record 1 lakh vaccinations a day,” he said.

In a related development, Pune district — which continues to be the worst-affected city-district in Maharashtra - on Friday saw the total number of cases increase from 5,44,287 to 5,53,413, while the total number of deaths in Pune rose from 8,343 to 8,373.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned the people across the State that if the situation did not improve in the next two days, then he would consider imposing lockdown in the state in a phased manner.

 Interacting with the people across the State through social media, Uddhav said: “I am giving a warning to people today. If there is no material change in the situation in the next two days and if we have no other alternative, then the State Government will consider imposing lockdown in a phased manner.”

Meanwhile, a day after the State recorded a staggering 43,183 infections and 249 deaths, the infections in Maharashtra rose to a staggering 47,827, while the Covid-19 toll dropped to 202 in the State.

 With 47,827 fresh cases, the total infections in Maharashtra climbed from 2,85,61,63 to 29,04076. Similarly, with 202 new deaths, the total Covid-19 toll rose from 54,898 to 55,379.

 As 24,126, patients were discharged from the hospitals across the State after full recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March last year went up to 24,56,494. The recovery rate in the State dropped from 85.20 per cent to 84.62 per cent.

 Meanwhile, the number of “active cases” total cases in the State increased from 3,66,533 to 3,89,832.  The fatality rate in the state dropped from 1.92 per cent to 1.91 per cent.

 There are a maximum of 60,851 “active” cases in Pune, followed by Mumbai (57,687) Nagpur (50,775), Thane (45033), Nashik (37263), Aurangabad (13204), Jalgaon (7345), Amaravati (3192) and Akola (3973).

 With 19 fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai rose from 11,708 to 11,727, while the infected cases went up further by an alarming 8,948 cases to trigger a jump in the infections from 4,23,419 to 4,32,367.

 Thane district remained in the third spot -- after Pune and Mumbai - after the total number of infections rose from 3,44,385 to 3,49,355 while the total deaths climbed from 5970 to 6087.

 Of the 2,01,58,719 samples sent to laboratories, 29,04,076 have tested positive (14.41 per cent) for Covid-19 until Friday.

 Currently, 21,01,999 people are in home quarantine while 19,237 people are in institutional quarantine.