As per the new COVID-19 restrictions, prohibition has been placed on New Year's celebrations, parties in any closed or open space including restaurants, hotels, bars, pubs, resorts and clubs from December 30 to January 7.
Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said it would support Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan if he was planning to reconsider his decision to reject the report of the commission which probed Adarsh Society scam.
The minister appealed to states and Union Territories to continue and strengthen surveillance and focus on genome sequencing for identifying new variants in the country.
With just two days to go before the COVID-19 vaccination opens for the people above 18 years and only two days after Maharashtra administered the highest number of 5 lakh doese in a day, reports of the shortage of the vaccines poured in from various parts of the state on Wednesday including Mumbai, officials said.
The veteran politician accused the BJP of breaking duly elected governments in opposition-ruled states even as it boasted about providing a stable government at the Centre.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and various other state ministers sat on a dharna in Mumbai on Thursday to protest against the arrest of their cabinet colleague Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
Aishwarya's mother-in-law Jaya Bachchan has tested negative.
Thackeray also warned of stricter restrictions if the people did not observe COVID-19 safety protocol, it said.
In a series of tweets, the health minister said the availability of vaccines can be better understood by an "actual analysis of the facts".
The task force then recommended that the state government implement measures like a stricter lockdown to stem the rise in coronavirus positive cases.
Union Minister Milind Deora on Tuesday disagreed with Maharashtra government's rejection of the judicial commission of inquiry report on Adarsh Housing scam which indicted several politicians including three former chief ministers for "blatant violations".
The highly virulent 'Delta plus' variant of the novel coronavirus could stoke a third wave in Maharashtra, according to a presentation made at a meeting attended by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
"Both the number of new patients and that of deaths are highest for a single day so far," an official said. 79 persons tested positive for COVID-19 during the day, taking the number of such cases in the country's financial capital to 775, the civic body said.
Maharashtra has now 1,46,129 active cases.
Satara, Sangli, Panvel have stopped vaccination while Buldhana has only one day's vaccine doses left in stock, said Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope.
'A decision on the IPL matches against the backdrop of coronavirus to be held in Mumbai will be taken at the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday.'
Pawar also announced a panel of senior party leaders to draw a future course of action. Party workers and leaders, however, demanded that Pawar withdraw his decision.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Satav died on Sunday, days after recovering from the coronavirus infection, hospital sources said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spreading fear, hatred and violence and said the country can not progress under these circumstances as he asked the government to be compassionate in handling farmers' problems to prevent suicides.
Health Minister Rajesh Tope also urged people to observe strict discipline
This year's T20 World Cup is set to be moved from India to the UAE with the BCCI acknowledging that none of the participating teams would be 'comfortable' coming here because a third wave of COVID-19 cases is expected at the time of the event.
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.
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Maharashtra government has rejected the report of the judicial commission of inquiry on the Adarsh scam it tabled in the legislative assembly on Friday which indicted several politicians including three former chief ministers for "blatant violations" of statutory provisions.
Some relatives of the deceased COVID-19 patients have alleged that the "lowered supply of oxygen" claimed the lives of their kin.
Three doctors and 26 nurses have tested positive for novel coronavirus in Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai's Mumbai Central area.
As cases of 'black fungus' among COVID-19 patients in the country rise to cross 7,000, the Centre on Thursday urged all states and union territories to declare it as a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act to ensure mandatory surveillance to tackle the 'new challenge'.
"At least for 15 days if people stay strictly indoors, like last year, we may expect better results. Please advise your government," the high court said.
A day after reporting 4,092 COVID-19 cases, highest single-day tally in more than a month, Maharashtra saw the daily count fall on Monday but it remained above 3,000 for the sixth straight day as the state government termed the situation as 'alarming' and warned of 'harsh decisions' after the recent spike.
The infants were aged between a month and three months, a doctor said. District civil surgeon Pramod Khandate said fire broke out at the Bhandara district hospital at around 1.30 am. There were 17 babies in the unit and seven were rescued, he added.
"Only 27 bodies can be kept in the KEM mortuary. But, all slots are filled with COVID-19 victims' bodies and other bodies have been kept in the corridor. There are some 15 bodies kept on stretchers on both sides of the corridor that leads to the second floor where the testing laboratory is located," KEM staffers' union leader Santosh Dhuri said. "Workers need protection kits and assurance of financial support in case of falling sick. These issues are not satisfactorily addressed by the BMC and the state government despite several reminders and agitations," he said.
Some states have flagged the shortage of vaccines and expressed their inability to start vaccination of people above 18 years from Saturday
Vardhan, who interacted with chief ministers, state health ministers, principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Goa through video conferencing and urged them to focus on effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases to reduce deaths in the first 24, 48 or 72 hours.
Stating that the fight against COVID-19 is at the final stage, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday cautioned against letting the guard down before it is completely over and requested states to enhance the vaccination coverage and motivate the over 12 crore beneficiaries who are due for their second dose to take it.
As India reached the halfway point in the 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, some states and rail and airline operators were considering measures to relax restrictions in phases from April 15. Simultaneously, the Centre has drawn up a cluster containment strategy to contain the coronavirus pandemic within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas.
With this allocation of portfolios, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has got most of the 'plum' ministries.
This was the sixth consecutive day when coronavirus cases increased by more than 14,000. Consequently, India has added 92,573 cases since June 20, and over 2.82 lakh this month alone since June 1.
The first nationwide mock drill was held on January 2 which, the health ministry said, helped to iron out any glitches in the final execution and further refinement of the operational procedures.
Overcrowding, unsanitary conditions in Asia's largest slum pose big challenges to containment.
Three more positive cases of novel coronavirus have been reported in India.
Modi said India has taken an important step forward in protecting its youth population against the disease.
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