No community spread of Covid-19 in Maharashtra: Health minister

MUMBAI : Even as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Maharashtra, Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday clarified that there is no community spread of the virus in the state.

He asserted that most new cases are of people who are either under institutional quarantine, home quarantine or with some contact history.

“I don’t think that there is community spread in the state. At least, as of today, we are of the opinion that we do not have community spread here. Most of the cases which are coming positive are of people who are either under institutional quarantine, home quarantine or with some contact history,” Tope said at a press conference here.

“We are seeing a lot of places where flattening of the curve has started like Sangli, Malegaon, and Solapur etc. Spread will increase it’s true, but we can’t close down everything including stopping economic activities. But there are certain places where lockdown can be imposed locally to contain the spread,” he said.

“But it’s not needed that lockdown should be re-imposed. We are going towards more relaxations phase-wise, not towards lockdown. We will see a phasewise unlock in the coming days,” Tope said.

Maharashtra, the worst-hit coronavirus state, has a total of 1,80,298 cases including 8,053 fatalities.

The minister said that Remdesivir and Favipiravir medicines will be available in all the districts in the coming two days.