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Mumbai: The government of Maharashtra on Thursday issued the standard operating procedure (SOP) to deploy 10,000 state transport buses to transport stranded people to their home districts in the state, while amending a previous order and eliminating the need to attach a medical certificate to the registration form to facilitate your return trip.
State Transport Minister Anil Parab held talks with Prime Minister Uddhav Thackeray during a strategy meeting on Thursday to discuss steps to be taken to aggressively contain the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease in the state. .
“We have arranged for 10,000 state buses to transport these stranded people in a group of 22-24 people. We have asked division officers to establish a control room to keep homeless people informed of bus service.” Parab said.
On Thursday, Maharashtra recorded the second highest peak in Covid-19 positive cases in a single day, as it reported 1,216 new cases. The highest number of Covid-19-related deaths in a single day in the state was also reported Thursday at 43, bringing the total number of victims to 694.
Maharashtra has recorded more than 1,000 cases in the past two days, raising concern about the spread of the pandemic.
In Mumbai, the epicenter of the outbreak in the state, 680 new positive cases of Covid-19 were detected Thursday as the total count rose to 11,394.
State health minister Rajesh Tope said the government has ordered Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities to initiate an aggressive institutional quarantine to curb the spread of Covid-19 cases, which was also suggested by a central team of the visit.
However, he admitted that social distancing norms cannot always be guaranteed for residents, who shamelessly live in narrow dwellings, such as in the congested slums of Dharavi, where institutional quarantine may work as the best precautionary measure.
CM Thackeray has hinted to extend the closing restrictions until May 31.
On Thursday, the state government amended a previous order and issued a clarification that a medical certificate does not need to be attached to the registration form to facilitate the travel of stranded people to their respective districts.
The decision was made after serpentine tails were seen outside the chambers of private doctors and after allegations that some doctors were overcharging the stranded for the medical certificate.
BMC authorities have reserved 3,343 rooms at 88 city hotels to quarantine the 1,900 stranded Indian citizens, who began flying into the city since Thursday night on special flights from abroad.
Incoming Indian citizens are allowed to move to hotels for a mandatory 14-day quarantine after a team of BMC doctors undergo an examination.
The state health department has performed 2,02,105 tests at various public and private facilities in Maharashtra. So far, 1.83,880 people have turned negative.
Maharashtra currently has 1,087 active containment zones. About 12,021 survey teams, made up of doctors and paramedical personnel, have examined more than 51.76 lakh people in the state for SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, health department officials said.
