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The government has now directed the district administrations with the high CFR to go for the aggressive tracing, surveillance of high- and low-risk patients and provide quick treatment to patients.

“In the first week of July, we had asked the district and civic administrations to reduce the positivity rate to less than 10% and CFR to less than 1%. More than two-and-half-months later, our positivity rate is around 19% and CFR at 3.25%. This is because of the lacklustre approach in surveillance and weak infrastructure in certain parts of the state. We are now gearing up the district administrations for immediate improvement on these two fronts,” said a Mantralaya official, on condition of anonymity.

Apart from the announcement of implementing ‘Chase The Virus’ drive across the state, Thackeray also announced ramping-up health infrastructure in rural areas. “The drive will tap citizens over 55 years and treat them for comorbidities. We have erected jumbo and field hospitals to treat Covid-19 and they are equipped with oxygen and ventilator facilities. Although these facilities are temporary, we could use the equipment while setting up permanent health facilities. We want to make available health facilities to the rural population on the lines of facilities available in Mumbai,” he said.

Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said Maharashtra has seen a drop in CFR over the past two months, although the cumulative rate is still high. “It will rapidly come down over the next few weeks and we expect the infection curve to touch baseline by Diwali, in the second week of November. It is true that the infrastructure in some districts still needs to be ramped up. In some districts, the turnaround time for test reports is more than two days, even though testing facilities in rural areas, too, have been augmented. This has resulted in reporting of more cases in rural areas,” he said.

Mumbai (5.3%), Solapur (4.1%) and Akola (4.1%) are among the districts with highest CFR in the state. Solapur has brought it down from 10% in the past three months by taking adequate measures. “We have been focussing on comorbid patients in the rural areas, where the spread has penetrated. We have been providing better facilities at Covid centres so that the patients are not scared of revealing their symptoms. In urban parts, we have reached the peak and in rural areas it’s expected to reach plateau in the next six weeks,” said Dr Pradeep Dhele, civil surgeon of Solapur district.

Dr Rajkumar Chauhan, civil surgeon of Akola district, said aggressive tracing and testing has helped them reduce fatality rate too. “Akola district is known for the high salinity water leading to chronic kidney ailments among people, especially the elderly. We have been focusing on comorbid patients, with the help of general practitioners and local corporators. We expect our CFR to drop to 3% in one month or so,” he said.

Russian Sukhoi-30 jets entered service in June 1997 — will significantly enhance the offensive capabilities of IAF, which has for long planned to update its fighter jet force. The IAF ordered 36 Rafale jets from France in a government-to-government deal worth Rs 59,000 crore in September 2016. They have been specially tailored for IAF.

The Rafale weaponry includes Meteor beyond visual range airto-air missiles, Mica multi-mission air-to-air missiles and Scalp deep-strike cruise missiles --weapons that allow fighter pilots to attack air and ground targets from standoff ranges and fill a significant capability gap. while heavy rain is also likely over northwest India including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi on August 28 and 29.

IMD scientists have warned of mudslides and flooding in parts of central India since the soil is already saturated in the regions.

“After a peculiar July when no low pressure system developed over Bay of Bengal, five low pressure systems developed over Bay of Bengal in August. Two of them moved upto south Rajasthan bringing heavy rain continuously in its way,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at national weather forecasting centre.