In a major initiative aimed at checking the spread of Covid-19 in Maharashtra, the MVA Government on Tuesday decided to discontinue home quarantine in the 18 of the worst-affected districts where the positivity rate is higher than the state’s average rate.
In effect, all those people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in the 18 specified districts will now have to go in compulsorily for institutional quarantine to ensure better health-care facilities and monitoring of the patients. The 18 districts constitute more than half of the total 35 districts in the state.
The 18 districts, where home quarantining has been done away with, are Satara, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, Beed, Raigad, Pune, Hingoli, Akola, Amaravati, Kolhapur, Thane, Sangli, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Latur. All these districts, where the positivity rate is higher than the state’s average rate, are in the Red Zone.
Talking to media persons here, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the state government was setting up more Covid-19 care centres along with isolation facilities where the patients would be treated
Tope said that the state government had asked the collectors in the 18 districts not to go in General testing but to concentrate on focussed testing. “Keeping in view the possibility of the emergence of third Covid-19 wave in the state, we have reviewed the situation in these districts and given necessary instructions to the collectors concerned.
As on Tuesday, 26,16,428 people are in home quarantine across the state, while 20,829 people are in institutional quarantine.