MAHARASHTRA...

municipal corporations and district collectors have restricted crowding at weddings, weekly markets and have started penalizing heavily for not wearing masks at public places. Although the CM announced last Sunday that he would take a review in the next few days to decide on lockdown, the state government is expected to defer the decision for a few more days.

“We have been strictly monitoring the situation at district levels to ensure the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the pandemic is implemented rigorously, so that there is no need for a lockdown. The district administrations have been taking action for violations related to crowding and social distancing which are key to arrest the spread. The district administrations have been empowered to impose restrictions at their level. Many of them have imposed local restrictions, results are expected in the next few days,” said Sanjay Kumar, chief secretary. After an upsurge in a few Vidarbha districts like Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Washim, the local administration has imposed restrictions. A sevenday lockdown in Amravati city and Achalpur town started Monday evening, while other districts have restricted shop and establishment timings. Marathwada districts, including Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Latur, have imposed a night curfew and restriction on the travellers coming from the affected Vidarbha districts. Schools and colleges in all these districts have been closed for few weeks.

“Weddings and market places have been super spreaders in Vidarbha districts. We have restricted the crowding at these places. Tracing of contacts has been increased to 20 persons per infection and testing has been increased multifold. We expect the spread in five Vidarbha districts (Amravati, Akola, Washim,

Buldhana, Yavatmal) to be arrested at the earliest,” said Gajendra Bawane, deputy commissioner, Amravati division.

In Aurangabad, divisional commissioner, who heads the administration of six districts in Central Maharashtra, has directed to keep their certain beds reserved for Covid-19 patients. The commissioner has also directed industrial units in Waluj and Chihkalthana industrial areas to take due precautions to ensure their employees do not spread the infection. “We have doubled the testing in the past two weeks, while process of ramping up of oxygen stock and number of beds has started. We are starting at least one Covid care centre per tehsil,” said Jagdish Miniyar, deputy commissioner, Aurangabad division.

Meanwhile, the state’s positivity rate went up to 9.69% on Friday, from 9.36% a week ago on February 19. However, it has witnessed reduction in the past two days after recording 10.89% on February 24, which was the highest daily rate in the past few weeks.

With 48 new deaths, the state’s toll stands at 52,041 and the case fatality rate at 2.43%.

The turnout for the vaccination drive improved as Friday recorded inoculation of 58,809 beneficiaries at 826 vaccination centers. At 71.19%, this has been highest ever one day turnout since the drive started on January 16. Of the total 1201096 doses given to health care and frontline workers, 661200 HCWs have taken their first dose while 158681 have taken their second shot.3,81,215 FLWs have taken their first jab. Maharashtra has 10,27,484 HCWs and 8,02,137 FLWs registered for the vaccine doses. istered on it. The government took the platform offline for the weekend to upgrade it to Co-WIN 2.0, which will allow all eligible people to be included.

“The States and UTs were explained the basic features of version 2.0 of the digital platform Co-WIN, which is a population-scale software with capacity of processing several thousands of entries. The new phase of vaccination of age-appropriate groups will expand the Covid-19 vaccination in the country manifold,” the health ministry said.

The vaccination drive at present is limited to health care workers and frontline services staff such as police and sanitation workers. The government also said on Friday that anyone of these who have been left out will also be allowed to seek doses at any centre they want to.

“With a citizen-centric approach, the fundamental shift in this phase is that citizens in the identified age groups, as also those health care workers and frontline who have been missed out or left out of the present phase of vaccination, can select vaccination centres of their choice,” the statement added.

Since the drive began on January 16, over 13 million doses have been delivered across the country. But the coverage has been lower than expected with only 48 people turning up on average for every 100 people expected for each session, government data showed.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and the chairman of the empowered group on vaccine administration (Co-WIN), RS Sharma, virtually met health secretaries and mission directors (national health mission) of states and union territories on Friday.

All Covid-19 vaccination will be at health care facilities – where doses will be free — such as sub health centres, primary health centres, community health centres, Ayushman BhaThe rat health and wellness centres, subdivision hospitals, district hospitals, and medical college hospitals, the Centre said.

Private hospitals empanelled under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PM JAY) and similar State Health Insurance Schemes will also act as vaccination sites. Doses at private hospitals, however, will need to be paid for by the recipient. The rate will be capped and is expected to be disclosed over the weekend.

“This meeting was more of an orientation session for states to familiarize them with the changes that they will encounter in the process,” said a senior health ministry official, asking not to be named.

The process of registration will follow three routes, the ministry statement said. The first is for people to register themselves in advance using the Co-WIN 2.0 web portal or the Aarogya Setu application. Through this route, they will also be able to book an appointment for the vaccination at a centre of their choice.

The second option is to register on-site.

In the third option, volunteers and grassroots government staff such as accredited social health activists, auxiliary nurse midwives, panchayati raj representatives and women self-help groups will be utilized to help register people.

For anyone turning up at a vaccination centre, whether for a dose or for registration, their identities will be verified through their Aadhaar cards or Voter ID cards. People between the age of 45 and 59 will need to present a certificate from a registered medical practitioner to show that they suffer from diseases that make them more vulnerable (a list is expected from the government over the weekend).

Once anyone is given a dose, a digital QR-code based certificate will be issued.