In view of cases of the Delta plus variant of COVID-19 emerging in Maharashtra, the state government on Friday announced 'state-level trigger' for imposing restrictions in administrative units irrespective of weekly positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy percentage.
After the Maharashtra government revised the guidelines on quarantine for international passengers in view of concerns over the Omicron variant, the Centre on Wednesday asked the state to align its order with the SOPs issued by the Union Health Ministry.
The Maharashtra government on Thursday extended the lockdown-like restrictions in the state till June 1 to break the chain of COVID-19.
Mumbai will continue to be in category 3 of the Maharashtra government's five-level unlock plan that seeks to ease coronavirus-induced curbs as per infection positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy numbers, the BMC said.
No immediate relief appears in sight as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for six districts which have been already pounded by downpour, forecasting "extremely heavy" rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
Tightening restrictions in the face of surging COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra Government on Saturday prohibited movement in public in groups of five or more from 5 in the morning to 11 at night, effective January 10 midnight.
Relaxation of restrictions as per the situation in different areas is only under consideration and no decision has been taken, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office said.
Four National Disaster Response Force teams are engaged in rescue work, he added. The village has around 50 houses, of which 17 were buried under the landslide, the official said.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast 'extremely heavy rains' at a few places in Marathwada, Mumbai and other parts of the coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra in the next 24 hours.
The Maharashtra government's decision came two days after the Centre cancelled the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 12 board exams citing the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 300 people from Maharashtra have been rescued from the earthquake-hit Nepal in the last four days, while the state government is unable to establish contact with 40 others.
The displacements were a result of a combination of increasing hazard intensity, high population exposure and high levels of social and economic vulnerability, a report says.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
The ministry had sent the six previous teams to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal to review the implementation of the lockdown measures after the assessment of ground situation in identified select districts.
A major fire broke out inside the industrial area of Dombivli in Thane after a boiler exploded at the plant of a chemical company.
Maharashtra has decided to relax lockdown restrictions on the basis of Covid positivity rate and availability of oxygen beds in Maharashtra. In a late night order, the state government said it will implement the new five-level eased curbs from Monday. This comes a day after Uddhav Thackeray's office took a U-turn on unlock plan announced by earlier by minister Vijay Wadettiwar. Here's all you need to know about the five-level unlock plan in Maharashtra:
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah said if any State/Union Territory in exercise of their jurisdiction under the Disaster Management Act (DMA) has taken a decision that it is not possible to conduct the final year/terminal semester examination by September 30, then they can make an application to the UGC for extending the deadline.
Amid a spike in coronavirus infections in some states, the Delhi government is likely to ask travellers from five states, including Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, to show negative COVID-19 test report before entering the national capital, officials said on Wednesday.
In case the test is negative, the passenger will still have to undergo seven-day home quarantine.
Due to the heavy wind and rains, a 100-year-old tree fell on a tin shed under which around 40 people were standing, the district administration said.
A court in Mumbai on Wednesday issued summons to then Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, former Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and then additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani for alleged "discriminatory" orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. A complaint was filed against the three in December 2021 by Ambar Koiri, claiming that their orders imposing various restrictions during the pandemic discriminated between vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens. On Wednesday, a magistrate's court here issued 'process' (summons) to Kunte, Chahal and Kakani and posted the matter for further hearing on January 11, 2023.
Nearly 6,000 passengers were stranded as train services on the Konkan Railway route in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district were suspended on Thursday after a river overflowed following heavy rains, while incessant downpour badly hit road and rail traffic in several parts of the state, including around Mumbai, as authorities called in NDRF to help the administration in rescue efforts.
Some India states are likely to record a significantly higher number of heatwave days, according to the national weather body.
According to disaster management control room of the civic body, no injury or casualty has been reported so far.
The government can verify 5 per cent of claims in four states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh -- where the gap between number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, said a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna.
Thackeray said losses have been reported from coastal Konkan and some other regions. He said and orders have been issued to carry out spot inspections to assess the damages caused by the cyclone.
Multiple incidents of landslide, wall and bridge collapse were reported in Thane city and neighbouring Palghar district in Maharashtra which were lashed by heavy rains on Wednesday, officials said.
What dos and don'ts should people in Maharashtra follow with the state government notifying The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 lockdown orders?
"Maharashtra is again under a lockdown. Nearly 100 people have died due to floods," he said.
Delhi's primary weather station, the Safdarjung Observatory, registered a maximum temperature of 40.4 degrees Celsius, four notches higher than normal.
The building, which housed godowns on the ground and first floors and four families on the top floor, collapsed at 1.45 pm on Saturday at Wardhaman Compound in Valpada of Mankoli area.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
Maharashtra has so far reported 54 cases of the Omicron variant. Out of these, 22 are from Mumbai, including cases found through screening at the international airport here, as per official data.
Maharashtra is expecting its active caseload to reach 11.9 lakh by April 30, compared to the current active caseload of 5.64 lakh, Thackeray said.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said future decisions on COVID-19 SOPs will be taken in consultation with the Union Health Ministry and the state Task Force, amid a difference between the Centre and the state over guidelines for international travellers in the wake of the new variant of SARS-CoV2.
"Yesterday's goof-up on unlock announcement happened only due to this, and this has happened earlier also," the former chief minister said.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,16,068.
The Mumbai police said prohibitory orders under Criminal Procedure Code Section 144 will be imposed in the city from December 16 to December 31, a period covering Christmas and New Year eve, banning large gatherings as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
A fresh spell of heatwave is likely to begin over northwest India from May 7 and over central India from May 8, the India meteorological department said on Thursday.
The injured -- 130 -- cannot go back to work nor do they have homes to return to. Many of them refuse to leave the hospital while some of their relatives sleep in the hospital corridors. Apart from their physical injuries, the trauma of seeing their family members swept away haunts them as does the loss of all their possessions. But the BJP-Sena government remains indifferent to this human crisis.
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