The total number of Coronavirus positive cases of rose from 17 to 31 in Maharashtra on Saturday, even as the State Government announced that all schools and colleges in urban areas of the state would remain closed till March 31 and also ordered the closure of malls in the municipal corporation areas of the State till March 30.
In couple of other developments, the Bombay High Court restricted to “urgent matters” the functioning of its courts in Mumbai and its benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa for a week beginning from Monday and the the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) suspended all classes and laboratory instructions are henceforth suspended till March 29, 2020 in view of Coronavirus threat.
Talking to media persons a day after he had ordered the closure of cinema halls, auditoriums, gyms and swimming pools in Mumbai and five other cities in the state, chief minister Uddhav Thackerary and State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that as a precautionary measure, malls in the municipal corporation areas of the state would remain closed till March 24.
On a day when the condition of the ten persons have tested positive for Coronavirus in Pune hospitals remained stable, the state health authorities pegged the total number of positive Covid-19 cases at 31. While Pune accounted for a maximum of 10 -15 cases, the break-up of positive Coronavirus cases elsewhere in the State was: Mumbai-5, Nagpur-4, Yavatmal-2, Panvel-1, Kalyan-1, Navi Mumbai-1, Thane-1 and Ahmednagar-1.
In what came as a cause of concern, a 72-year-old man who had recently returned from Dubai and was showing Covid-19 symptoms – died in Buldhana district in Vidarbha region. His blood samples have been sent for testing to confirm the exact cause of his death and the test report is awaited.
In an incident that caused a stir in the orange city of Nagpur, four suspected Coronavirus patients ran away from Mayo Hospital late on Friday night. After frantic search, the hospital authorities traced the missing patients to their homes, from where the latter were brought back to the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
“The test reports of four persons showing symptoms of Coronavirus were expected at 3.30 pm. Apprehending the possibility of their testing positive for pandemic virus, they had escaped from the hospital and returned to their homes shortly before Friday midnight. However, they were brought back to the hospital this afternoon,” Nagpur District Collect Ravindra Thakre said.
Making a statement in the Maharashtra Assembly, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope announced that all schools, colleges and anganwadis coming under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats would remain closed till March 31.
“However, the board examinations for 10th and 12th standards in all schools and junior colleges across the state will go on as scheduled,” Tope said.
Through a directive, the Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court stated that “the functioning of the Courts in High Court as well as its Benches functioning at Nagpur, Aurangabad and the High Court of Bombay at Goa presently for a week commencing from Monday, 16th March, 2020 shall be restricted to urgent matters”.
As per the restrictions imposed by the HC’s Acting Chief Justice, the Advocates, litigants and parties in persons may mention their matters showing the urgency before the concerned Courts and upon satisfaction about the urgency, the Court shall hear such matters.
The Acting Chief Justice appealed to all the Bar associations and the Advocates to restrict the entry of the litigants in the Court and only in cases where the presence is unavoidable, one person may be called.
In a related development, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar urged the people to celebrate weddings and other functions only at the family level to avoid crowds.He also warned the owners of cinema halls/multiplexes that stringent action would be taken against them if they flouted the 14-day shut down order issued to them by the state government on Friday.
State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that he had ordered a medical check-up of all prisoners or under-trials lodged across the state for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, acting on the advice of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) has suspended all classes and laboratory instructions are henceforth suspended till March 29, 2020 in view of Coronavirus threat. “All students are encouraged to go home... Ph.D. and Masters’ students engaged in thesis work may continue to stay in the campus and work towards their projects,” an IIT-B statement said.