Uddhav warns of 3rd wave as Maha records a record 67,123 fresh cases, 419 new deaths

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Uddhav warns of 3rd wave as Maha records a record 67,123 fresh cases, 419 new deaths

Sunday, 18 April 2021 | TN RAGHUNATHA | Mumbai

On a day when Maharashtra logged an all-time high of 67,123 infections and second highest-ever daily Covid toll of 419, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned the State of a possible "third wave of Covid-19".

Interacting with  some of the leading industrialists and Corporate leaders, Uddhav said: “Currently, we are in dire need of oxygen, and currently the entire production is being utilized for medical purposes. Given the number of new patients coming up daily ---around 60,000daily), we need a lot more oxygen for which the industries can help out”.

The chief minister went on to urge the Industrialists and Corporate House to collaborate with the Maharashtra government in fighting the current Covid-19 crisis. He also told them that they could contribute immediately by setting up Covid care facilities on their plants and premises and plans 'Covid-compatible workplaces' for the future.

Health Secretary Dr. Pradeep Vyas told the gathering that the state was conducting 3-lakh tests per million population and though the death rate is low, the infections were very high.

Vyas urged the industrialists to start setting up small oxygen plants in their premises to absorb natural oxygen based on new technologies and provide the entire production (oxygen) for medical purposes.

Some of the industrialists who attended Saturday’s meeting were: Niranjan Hiranandani, Uday Kotak, Deepak Mukhi, Harsh Goenka, Naushad Forbes, Sulajja Firodia, Sameer Somaiya, S. N. Subramanian, Salil Parekh, Neel Raheja, Sanjeev Bajaj, Anant Goenka, Baba Kalyani, Anant Singhania, B. Thagarajan, Banamali Agarwal, Ashwin Yardi, Sunil Mathur, Sanjeev Singh, Ashish Agarwal, representatives of FICCI, CII and others industry bodies.

The top corporates and groups like Tata, Reliance, L&T, Infosys, JSW, Mahindra & Mahindra, Godrej, Blue Star, Kinetic Engineering and many more made their presence felt at the meeting

In response to the chief minister’s appeal, the corporate leaders committed to make available oxygen, provide testing and vaccination centres, isolation areas, creating special systems for the health of all their workers and employees, developing systems to encourage Work From Home and other Covid-appropriate measures.

The chief minister urged the corporate to ensure that in view of the ‘Covid waves’, all steps must be taken to prevent its adverse impact on the industry and the economy due to unavoidable pandemic lockdowns or stringent norms.

Uddhav asked the industrialists to take up welfare activities like Shiv Bhojan Thali for the poor in cities or local villages through the CSR route to minimize the impact of the Covid waves on the most vulnerable sections of society.

Meanwhile, the Covid crisis in the state worsened as the State recorded 67,123 infections and 419 deaths, taking the total number of infections in the state to 37,70,707 and the total deaths to 59,970.    

As 56,783 patients were discharged from the hospitals across the state after fu3ll recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March last year went up to 39,61,174. The recovery rate in the state for the first time in several days rose from  81.12 per cent to 81.18 per cent

The number of “active cases” total cases in the state rose from 6,38,034 to 6,47,933. The fatality rate in the state dropped from 1.61 per cent to 1.59 per cent.

With 51 fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai rose from 12,250 to 12,301, while the infected cases went up by 8811 to trigger a jump in the infections from 5,62,207 to 5,71,018.              

While Pune accounted for a maximum 1,20,452  “active cases” in the state, Mumbai stood second with 86,433 active cases, followed by Thane (82,047), Nagpur (72,860), Nashik (40449), Aurangabad (13,499), Ahmednagar (20,577), Nanded (12,906), Bhandara (14182), Jalgaon (11797), Latur (15348), Solapur (11656), Satara (11,625), Parbhani (11,125), Beed (9047), Nandurbar (7314), Chandrapur (11,026) and Gondia (8038).

Of the 2,35,80, 913 samples sent to laboratories, 37,70,707 have tested positive (15.99 per cent) for COVID-19 until Saturday.

Currently, 35,72,933 people are in home quarantine while 25,623people are in institutional quarantine.

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