Maharashtra CM to chair meeting with BMC to review Covid-19 situation

As novel coronavirus cases in the state are witnessing a surge since the last few weeks, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is scheduled to chair a meeting through video conferencing later on Friday in order to assess the COVID-19 situation in the jurisdiction of Mumbai's civic body, BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation.

Uddhav is also expected to take an update on BMC's pre-monsoon preparations.

Worst-hit Maharashtra:

The worst-hit state due to Covid-19 is currently at a standstill as the state government has implemented numerous 'lockdown-like' restrictions in order to contain the spread. These restrictions also include strict night curfew, weekend lockdown and a ban on unnecessary movement across the state.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra continued to report grim COVID-19 figures on Thursday with 61,695 new COVID-19 cases and 349 deaths in the last 24 hours.

As per the state health department, the total number of positive cases in the state now stands at 36,39,855, including 29,59,056 recoveries and 59,153 deaths.

The Mumbai division, including Mumbai city and its satellite towns, recorded 16,906 cases and 82 deaths during the day, taking the count of cases to 11,50,776 and the fatalities to 21,416.

Many Indian hospitals were scrambling for beds and oxygen as COVID-19 infections surged to a new daily record on Friday, with a second wave of infections centred on Maharashtra.

The country has been producing oxygen at full capacity for each of the last two days but will have to turn to imports, with the health ministry saying it was planning to import 50,000 metric tons.

"The situation is horrible," said Avinash Gawande, an official at a government hospital in the industrial city of Nagpur that was battling a flood of patients, as were hospitals in neighbouring Gujarat state and New Delhi in the north.

"We are a 900-bed hospital, but there are about 60 patients waiting and we don't have space for them."

Maharashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, began a lockdown at midnight on Wednesday, a move that spurred a rush to stockpile essential items in advance.

India reported over 2 lakh new COVID-19 cases and more than 1,100 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry on Friday.

In the last 24 hours, 1,185 COVID-related deaths were reported in the country taking the death toll to 1,74,308. As many as 2,17,353 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases has gone up to 1,42,91,917.

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