COVID-19 crisis: Fadnavis questions MVA govt's rationale for institutional quarantine rule

Addressing the media on Thursday, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis urged the Maharashtra government to explain the rationale for making institutional quarantine mandatory for COVID-19 patients in 18 districts. Echoing the opinion expressed by the Mayors of Nagpur and Pune, he mentioned that this is not feasible at present. Moreover, he expressed surprise at the state government taking such a step when the second COVID-19 wave is showing signs of relenting. 

Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis remarked, "The state government should explain the rationale for shutting down home isolation and making institutional quarantine mandatory. It does not look feasible at the moment. When the wave is on the wane, everyone is finding it difficult to go from home isolation to institutional quarantine."

Three days earlier, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said, "We have decided to stop home isolation for patients of 18 districts where the positivity rate is high. The patients from these districts will have to go to a quarantine center, won't be allowed home isolation". This rule will be applicable to the districts of Pune, Thane, Satara, Sindhadurg, Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, Beed, Raigad, Hingoli, Akola, Amravati, Kolhapur, Sangli, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Latur. 

COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra

On Thursday, May 27, Maharashtra recorded 21,273 novel coronavirus cases taking the State's COVID-19 tally to 56,72,180. At present, there are 3,01,041 active cases in the State. With 34,370 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 52,76,203. With Mumbai recording 1266 cases in the day, it remains a major novel coronavirus hotspot in the state. 

425 deaths including 41 from Ahmednagar, 39 from Pune, 37 each from Kolhapur and Nashik, 36 from Mumbai and 24 from Satara were reported on Thursday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 267 occurred in the last 48 hours and 158 in the last week. Until now, a total of 92,225 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. So far, 3,40,86,110 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state.

While 22,18,278 persons are under home quarantine, 19,996 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 93.02 per cent and 1.63 per cent respectively. A total of 1,71,85,657 persons have been inoculated in the state, 44,60,819 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. Speculation is rife that the state government will extend the lockdown beyond June 1 and ease restrictions in a phase-wise manner.