Maharashtra mulls allowing those fully vaccinated to use local trains

Active cases decline as State’s recoveries outpace new COVID-19 cases

The Maharashtra government was mulling opening up local train services to people who had taken both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Thursday.

However, Mr. Tope said that any decision on the proposal, which was currently under discussion, would only be taken by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The State government is also planning to ease COVID-19 restrictions in 25 districts where the case positivity rate and fatalities are low. However, no restrictions would be lifted in the remaining 11 districts, including Pune, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar and Raigad that had a high case positivity rate, he said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported robust recoveries on Thursday, with 11,124 patients being discharged against 7,242 new COVID-19 cases as the State’s active case tally dipped to 78,562.

As many as 190 deaths pushed the State’s cumulative fatalities to 1,32,335 with the case fatality rate climbing to 2.1%.

The total cases have reached 62,90,156 while the cumulative recoveries have risen to 60,75,888 with the recovery rate standing at 96.59%.

“Of a total 4,75,59,938 laboratory samples tested thus far, 62,90,156 (with the average case positivity falling incrementally to 13.23%) have returned positive with over 1.90 lakh samples being tested in the last 24 hours,” State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate said.

Pune recorded more than 1,100 new cases taking its total case tally to 10,87,262 while 21 deaths pushed the toll over 18,300. As per district authorities, the active cases have declined to 9,200.

Mumbai reported 341 new cases to take its total tally to 7,34,112 while the active count dipped to 6,921. Thirteen fatalities took the city’s death toll to 15,873.

Ahmednagar registered more than 850 cases and 11 deaths, taking its total cases to 2,83,272 of whom 4,709 are active. Its death toll has gone up to 6,129.

Kolhapur added 650 new cases, taking its total case tally to 1,92,495. The active cases declined to 6,965. Ten deaths saw the toll climb to 5,458.

Satara logged 1,009 cases and 12 deaths as its total tally rose to 2,17,038 of whom 7,847 are active while the death toll climbed to 5,215.

Neighbouring Sangli reported more than 750 new cases and 27 deaths. The total cases stand at 1,82,519 with the active cases dropping to 7,867 while its fatality toll has reached 5,016.