Maharashtra adds over 1.8 lakh new Covid cases in 6 days, night curfew from tomorrow | 10 points

In the last six days, Maharashtra, the state worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, added over 1.8 lakh fresh infections to the caseload of the state, while 608 people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 from all across the state. This week has been significant in Maharashtra's battle against the pandemic as a year after it started, the state recorded the highest-ever daily spike, necessitating statewide night curfew which will be imposed from March 28.

Here are 10 developments of the Maharashtra Covid-19 situation that took place between March 21 and March 26

> On March 24, the state reported a record high in the number of cases with 31,855 fresh infections. The new record was then left behind and in the next two days, the state reported new highs.

> In the last six days, Mumbai reported 26,765 new infections and 57 deaths. For Mumbai too, this week was the most crucial as after a year of its continuous battle against the pandemic, it reported a record high of 5,190 daily cases on March 24.

> Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has instructed district administrations to impose night curfew from 8pm to 7am across the state. This makes Maharashtra as the first state to announce any state-wide restriction a year after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020. Several districts of the state were under restrictions. Other states too have imposed district-specific restrictions.

> At present, Maharashtra has 2,82,451 active Covid-19 cases.

> Nine out of 10 districts with the highest number of active cases in the country are in Maharashtra. Pune has the highest number of active cases — 50,240, according to Union health ministry data on Friday.

> Almost all districts in the last six days reported their highest single-day addition. Nashik on Friday recorded 4,099 new cases. Nagpur, which is under lockdown, reported its highest single-day spike of 4,095 cases on Friday.

> No celebrations on the occasion of Holi, Good Friday, Easter is allowed in the state.

> Nagpur, Nanded, Beed, Parbhani districts are already under lockdown. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar warned on Friday that if the Covid-19 situation in Pune remains the same, then lockdown is possible. On Friday, the district of Pune reported 7,090 Covid-19 cases. Out of these, Pune city accounted for 3,594 cases.

> The Union health ministry has said the situation in Maharashtra is of grave concern. The state has also reported a double mutant strain of the virus in Nagpur, but this has not been correlated with the spike. Availability of a pool of susceptible population, meaning a large number of people who lowered their guard in the past few months in the state, is being seen as the reason behind the spike.

> The government is ramping up the vaccination and testing numbers as imposing lockdown is not a solution. Mumbai civic body started random rapid antigen testing in crowded areas of the city.