Maharashtra schools reopening: Decision will be taken by local officials amid outbreak of Delta Plus variant

The state task force on COVID-19 at a meeting on Wednesday night opposed the decision to resume more classes at schools.
Representational photo (File photo| EPS)
Representational photo (File photo| EPS)

MUMBAI: It is up to local officials to decide, taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation in an area, whether physical classes should resume at schools, Maharashtra School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said on Thursday.

Asked about the confusion about the government's announcement to resume more physical classes at schools from August 17, Gaikwad said the decision-making has been decentralized.

The opposition BJP, on the other hand, claimed there was no coordination in the government on the issue.

The state task force on COVID-19 at a meeting on Wednesday night opposed the decision to resume more classes at schools.

Gaikwad was not present at the meeting.

The minister told reporters on Thursday that municipal commissioners in urban areas and collectors and Zilla Parishad CEOs in rural areas have been given discretion to take decision.

"There is no compulsion (on the state government's part) to reopen schools. The COVID task force members were not aware of our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). There will be a meeting again. Our (education department's) secretary is studying the SOP of the task force," Gaikwad said.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said there was no coordination between the task force, education minister Gaikwad and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the issue, creating confusion.

All stake-holders should sit together and arrive at a consensus, the former chief minister said.

Health authorities in Maharashtra's Gondia district have started tracing close contacts of two women who were found infected with the Delta plus variant of coronavirus, considered highly infectious, an official said on Thursday.

As many as 105 swab samples collected from the district were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune in the last week of June for genome sequencing and two of them tested positive for the Delta plus variant, according to Dr Nitin Kapse, District Health Officer.

Their report was received on Wednesday, he said.

Though both the patients, women aged 19 and 45, have recovered from the infection, the district health department has started a survey at their native places, looking for their travel history and close contacts, he said.

The women hail from Sadak Arjuni and Salekasa tehsils of the district located in the Vidarbha region in eastern Maharashtra.

"The health department is looking for their close contacts so that they can undergo RT-PCR tests and also looking at their travel history," he said.

Kapse said there is no need for people to panic but they should strictly adhere to COVID-19 protocols to stay away from the infection and curb its spread.

The state reported 6,388 new coronavirus cases and 208 fresh fatalities on Thursday, taking the infection tally to 63,75,390 and the death toll to 1,34,572, a health department official said.

Notably, the daily coronavirus infections in the state have gone over 6,000 after a gap of four days, while for the first time since July 31, the fatalities have crossed the 200-mark.

The state witnessed an increase in COVID-19 cases and fatalities as compared to Wednesday, when it had reported 5,560 infections and 163 deaths.

The official said 8,390 patients were discharged from hospitals across the state in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of recovered cases to 61,75,010.

Maharashtra now has 62,351 active cases, he said.

The state has 3,98,397 people in home quarantine and 2,507 in institutional quarantine, according to the official.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 recovery rate now stands at 96.86 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.11 per cent, he said.

The cumulative number of tests conducted in the state climbed to 5,03,26,812, of which 2,10,674 were done in the last 24 hours, the official said.

Notably, Dhule, Nandurbar, Wardha and Jalgaon districts, along with Malegaon and Bhiwandi Nizampur municipal corporations did not report any new coronavirus infections, he said.

Among districts, Satara reported the highest new infections at 919.

The official said among the eight regions of Maharashtra, the Pune region reported the highest 2,828 new COVID-19 cases followed by 1,472 cases in the Kolhapur region.

Among the other regions, Nashik reported 918 cases, Mumbai 728, Latur 327, Aurangabad 73, Akola 22 and the Nagpur region recorded 20 new cases, the official said.

Among the 208 new fatalities, the highest at 81 were reported from the Mumbai region followed by 52 from the Kolhapur region.

The Aurangabad region did not report any fresh death, while the Pune region recorded 48 fatalities, Nashik 14, Latur 11, while one death each was registered in the Akola and Nagpur regions, said the official.

He said Mumbai city witnessed 281 new COVID-19 cases and seven deaths, while Pune city reported 313 fresh infections and two fatalities.

Among 62,351 active cases in the state, Pune district has the highest at 14,423, according to the official.

He said among the 61,75,010 recovered patients across the state, the highest - 10,67,600 - were are from Pune district.

Coronavirus figures for Maharashtra are as follows: Total cases 63,75,390; new cases 6,388; total deaths 1,34,572; total recoveries 61,75,010; active cases 62,351; total tests 5,03,26,812.

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