Maharashtra: ‘Zero Covid’ Wardha records two cases, including one death

“We are trying to trace the origin of her infection. We came to know that a relative, who is a nurse at Nagpur, had come to visit the family about 15 days ago. The police are also investigating if she may have got it from neighbouring Amravati district as her husband was allegedly involved in illicit liquor business,” Bhimanwar added.

The body of the woman was sent to her village before the test report came. As several people attended her funeral, the administration is now tracing and quarantining all of them. The authorities have also sealed areas in a three-km radius of the village and is doing contact tracing.

The district also recorded its second coronavirus case on Sunday with a 64-year-old man from Washim, who had come to the same hospital for treatment, testing positive. He had come to the hospital for treatment of pneumonia.

Meanwhile, a Covid-19 patient with co-morbidities died at Akola on Sunday, taking the district’s death tally to 14. The district also saw its case tally going up by four to cross the 150 mark on Sunday. Now Gadchiroli remains the only district in the region with no Covid-19 patient.

Vidarbha saw a large number of patients being discharged in various districts. “We had 22 patients discharged each from Yavatmal and Akola and 15 from Amravati on Sunday and will have another 50-odd patients going home on Monday. Many of these are as per new guidelines where no further tests are required to be carried out after ten days if the patient becomes asymptomatic,” said Amravati Divisional Commissioner Piyush Singh.

Yavatmal Collector M D Singh, however, said, “Our 22 patients who were discharged were as per old guidelines after full 14-day stay in hospital and after carrying out fresh tests. We are now left with 64 active cases.”

Nagpur saw its tally going up by another 13 to touch 294. A cancer patient from Achalpur in Amravati district, declared brought dead at the Government Medical College and Hospital here on Saturday, was found to be coronavirus positive on Sunday. The overall death tally of Vidarbha now stands at 33, Akola leads with 14, Amravati follows closely with 13, Nagpur three and Wardha, Washim and Buldana having one death each.

Gadchiroli

Gadchiroli has become the first district in the state to open up fully from Friday with Collector Deepak Singla allowing all shops and non-crowding business establishments to function from 7 am to 5 pm. “All units producing essential items as well as medical facilities will not be bound by time limits,” an order by Singla said.

Courier and other home services, too, have been allowed. But the allowance come with riders like following social distancing and sanitation norms. At hair-cutting saloons, people have been asked to carry their own cloth and only one person is allowed at a time. Movement in and out of the district without permission, however, remains closed. Malls, cinema theatres, paan kiosks, lodges, religious places, gymnasium, education centres, etc will also remain closed.