1Mumbai Live News:  Mumbai reported 11,317 fresh Covid-19 cases and nine deaths on Friday. Out of these, 84 per cent of the patients were asymptomatic. The total number of active Covid cases stood at 84,352 as of Friday evening.
Maharashtra recorded 43,211 new Covid cases and 19 deaths on Friday. With 33,356 recoveries recorded on Friday, active covid cases are 2,61,658. The number of Omicron cases recorded today were 238, taking the state’s tally to 1605.
With 13,702 cases, Mumbai recorded a drop of 16.55% in daily Covid-19 cases on Thursday from the previous day. However, this drop didn’t reflect in the state’s tally as Maharashtra again reported over 46,406 cases on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government on Thursday demanded 40 lakh Covaxin and 50 lakh Covishield doses from the Centre to increase the vaccination coverage in the state during a meeting of the chief ministers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the prevailing Covid-19 situation. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, however, skipped the meeting called by the PM citing health reasons.
Mumbai reported 11,317 fresh Covid-19 cases and nine deaths on Friday. Out of these, 84 per cent of the patients were asymptomatic. The total number of active Covid cases stood at 84,352 as of Friday evening. 
After the Pune division of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) asked chemists to keep a record of people buying home antigen test kits to ascertain Covid-19 infection, the commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Thursday issued similar orders and asked chemists and others to share the data with the FDA and the BMC’s Epidemiology Cell via email every day in the evening.
This comes amid a surge in the number of Covid cases and rise in cases of the Omicron variant, many in Mumbai are reportedly purchasing home testing kits.
The circular issued by municipal commissioner I S Chahal Thursday stated that all manufactures, distributors, chemists, dispensaries should maintain records of sale of home testing antigen kits.
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Mayank Rawat, 21, arrested in the Bullibai app case tested positive. Shweta Singh,21, has been produced in the magistrate court. Apart from Rawat, the first accused Vishal Kumar Jha 21 and investigating officer, Maushmi Patil too have tested positive and have been quarantined.
Shweta Singh’s lawyer has alleged that she was slapped during her questioning by Cyber police. The court has noted it. Rawat and Singh were sent to Judicial custody as police have no new grounds left to seek further custody. The court will hear the bail plea of all the three accused on Monday.
A 23-year-old food delivery man was arrested after he rammed his SUV into stationary auto-rickshaws leading to the death of the driver of one of the vehicles in Andheri (West) Wednesday afternoon. The incident took place around 3.30 pm near Jain temple on the SV Road in Andheri (west). The police said the rickshaws were parked in a no parking zone. (Read more)
In the ongoing investigation into the abortion conducted on a 13-year-old rape survivor, the Maharashtra Police reportedly found 11 skulls and 54 bones of foetuses buried inside the premises of Kadam Hospital in Wardha district. This came hours after a doctor and two nurses were arrested for conducting the abortion.
Confirming the development, Bhanudas Pidurakar, senior police inspector of Arvi police station, said, “We have sent the remains for post-mortem and forensic analysis. We are finding out if more abortions were carried out at the hospital. As of now, we have information only about one case.” (Read more)
The vaccination of children between the ages of 15 to 17 is going slow, shows data of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In last 10 days, only about 12 per cent of eligible population has been vaccinated.
According to data from the civic body, there are about nine lakh children in the age group of 15 years to 17 years in Mumbai. Of these, so far, 1.08 lakh children have been inoculated. Data shows that 95,441 were vaccinated at BMC centres, 9,359 in private hospitals, and 3,580 in state government-run centres as of Wednesday. (Read more)
The much-awaited second doppler weather radar (DWR) for Mumbai will finally be commissioned on Friday. The C-band Doppler Radar in Mumbai’s western suburbs will track severe weather events affecting the region, especially thunderstorms, lightning, squalls and heavy rainfall, in conjunction with other tools and techniques.
“This C-band radar at Mumbai will facilitate a better understanding and monitoring of weather systems, hydrological applications, flood warnings, and also climate research. It will give information about microphysical processes in clouds which can help in improving numerical weather prediction models,” the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. (Read more)
The cold-like conditions continued in Mumbai on Friday, with the minimum and maximum temperatures being below normal. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast for the next 24 hours, the minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to rise and hover around 18 degrees and 28 degrees Celsius, respectively.
On Thursday, the minimum temperature recorded by the IMD Colaba observatory was 18 degrees Celsius, which was 1.4 degrees below normal. The IMD Santacruz observatory recorded a minimum temperature of 16 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees below normal. (Read more)
There has been a marginal increase in the mangrove cover in the state since 2019, as per the Forest Survey of India (FSI). According to India State of Forest Report (ISFR), FSI’s biennial report released on Thursday, the mangrove cover in the state is spread across 324 square km, a 4 square kilometres rise since 2019.
The report, which assesses the forest and tree resources of the country, says while the overall mangrove cover has increased in the state, Mumbai suburbs recorded the highest loss of mangroves among the six coastal districts at 1.08 square km. Mangroves are an important refuge of coastal bio-diversity and also act as bio-shields against extreme climate events such as flash floods. Mangrove cover is also divided as very dense, moderate and open mangrove cover and the state has moderately dense and open mangrove covers.
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IN ORDER to formalize a strategy in reducing the number fatal road accidents and improve road safety in the state, the Maharashtra Police along with the Regional Transport Officials (RTO) and medical professionals have started using Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD), a mobile application to collect and maintain an accurate and uniformed data of the road accidents.
IRAD,a project of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), is a Central road accident database management system. The initiative was started on a pilot basis in 59 districts in six states including Maharashtra a few months ago. Initially, the personnels of four of the stakeholders — Police, Transport, Highways & Health Departments — in 10 districts of the state were trained to collect information of crashes and upload it on the system. Now it has been started in all the districts of the state.
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Four personnel of the Government Railway Police (GRP) here have been suspended for not following the guidelines while carrying out an anti-sabotage check at a railway station last month, an official said on Thursday.  “These personnel had failed to obey the instructions related to anti-sabotage checking as issued by their superiors, including that of standing in a line behind the desk and being clearly seen in a camera during the operation,” he said.
The action was taken after a jeweller had complained to the authorities that on December 16, just before he was about to board Gitanjali Express from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), his luggage was checked by the GRP personnel as part of an anti-sabotage measure, the official said. The jeweller had claimed that some of the gold from his bag went missing after the check. However, he later informed that it was later found inside the bag. (PTI)
The BMC’s ambitious project of building underground water storage tanks to tackle flooding in Hindmata is set to face cost escalation with the civic body planning to spend an additional Rs 67 crore on expanding the capacity of the tanks.
The BMC is constructing two underground water tanks at Pramod Mahajan Kala Park in Dadar West and at St Xavier’s Ground in Parel. Under the project, the excess rainwater from the Hindmata would be diverted to these tanks. After the rain subsides, the water from the tanks will be pumped out in nullahs. (Read more)
With a surge in Covid-19 cases, while the prison department has stopped physical meetings again of inmates with relatives and lawyers, the phone and video call facility is yet to be resumed in many jails.
On Wednesday, undertrials in the Elgaar Parishad case — lodged in Taloja Central Prison — were produced before the special court via video conference. The accused, including lawyer Surendra Gadling as well as activists Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves, told the court that they were not able to communicate with their families and lawyers since the mulaqats have been discontinued. (Read more)
THE BJP, which has wielded overall control over the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank (MDCCB), suffered a body blow on Thursday as deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar got ally Sena on board to get NCP’s Siddharth Kamble election to the post of the bank’s president.
The MVA allies’ agreement seems to have resulted from a closed door meeting between Pawar and Shiv Sena Minister Aaditya Thackeray where Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s confidant Milind Narwekar was also present. BJP had fielded MLC Prasad Lad, one of the bank directors, against NCP-Sena combine’s Siddharth Kamble after its Praveen Darekar withdrew from the contest. Lad lost by two votes. (Read more)
The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will launch a WhatsApp chat box facility on Friday. Through this, information on more than 80 different services will be available to the citizens through WhatsApp. BMCs WhatsApp number is 8999-22-8999.
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The 20 official residences of ministers opposite Mantralaya, the state secretariat, were named after the forts of Maharashtra on Thursday. The public works department has issued an order in this regard in last month.
Official said that several memorandums were received by the government on naming ministerial bungalows after the forts. “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked the administration in October 2020 to take appropriate action. After seeking a report, it has been decided that names of forts would be used for these bungalows,” said an official. (Read more)
In view of the surge in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra and in line with the state government’s guidelines, several curbs have been imposed at hill stations near Mumbai, with the local authorities closing down some of the popular spots, including tiger reserves and national parks.
The Matheran Municipal Council on Tuesday closed several tourist spots at the hill station. The order issued by Matheran Chief Executive Officer Surekha Bhange included the Charlotte Lake, Alexander Point, Rambag point, Big Chowk Point, One tree hill point, Eco point, Louisa point, Coronation point, Sunset point and the Monkey point for tourists. The mini-train from Aman Lodge to Matheran is still operational.
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The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) has set up a 40-member team of doctors to analyse the low Covid-19 figures in Malegaon city – located 280 km north of Mumbai. During the first wave of the pandemic, Malegaon had seen a massive increase in cases and a large number of deaths.
In April 2020, it had registered 580 deaths, almost twice the number for the same month the previous year (277). However, cases have been declining ever since in spite of low vaccination rates. The city as of Thursday had only 35 active Covid-19 cases. “There were around 400 active cases last April at the peak of the second wave… now the number is only 35,” said Bhalchandra Gosavi, commissioner of the Malegaon Municipal Corporation. (Read more)
The Maharashtra government on Thursday demanded 40 lakh Covaxin and 50 lakh Covishield doses from the Centre to increase the vaccination coverage in the state during a meeting of the chief ministers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the prevailing Covid-19 situation. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, however, skipped the meeting called by the PM citing health reasons. Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope instead attended the meeting but was not allowed to speak.
“We demanded the 40 lakh doses of Covaxin and 50 lakh doses of Covishield. Covaxin is required for the vaccination for the 15-18 age group and Covishield for people over 60 years of age and the frontline workers,” Tope told mediapersons after the meeting. (Read more)
With 13,702 cases, Mumbai recorded a drop of 16.55% in daily Covid-19 cases on Thursday from the previous day. A day ago, Mumbai registered 16,420 new infections, which was 41% more than that of Tuesday. The test positivity rate — the ratio of tests returning positive — fell to 21.73% from 24.38%.
Students between the age groups of 15-18 getting vaccinated at a Municipal run Vaccination center in Mumbai. (Express)
The state government will provide ration cards to sex workers and destitutes without insisting on identity and residential proof, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said on Thursday. The department has sought a detailed list of sex workers and destitutes from various non-government organisations and the State Aids Control Organisation.
“Officials issuing the new ration cards have been asked not to stress on documents such as identity and residential proof. They should be exempted from providing such documents,” Bhujbal said.
The state urban development department plans to amend the Development Control and Promotion Regulations-2034, which will allow the BMC to construct houses for project-affected persons (PAP) on its own land. At present, only the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority can build houses on their own plots for persons who give up their land for infrastructure projects. Officials said the department has sought suggestions and objections for amending Clause 3.1 I of Regulation 33(10).
BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Thursday, “The BMC will need at least 50,000 PAP tenements in the next two to three years to push development projects. At present, the supply of houses from SRA is negligible. This decision will enable us to create a sizeable pool of PAP tenements.’’
With a surge in Covid-19 cases, while the prison department has stopped physical meetings again of inmates with relatives and lawyers, the phone and video call facility is yet to be resumed in many jails.
On Wednesday, undertrials in the Elgaar Parishad case — lodged in Taloja Central Prison — were produced before the special court via video conference. The accused, including lawyer Surendra Gadling as well as activists Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves, told the court that they were not able to communicate with their families and lawyers since the mulaqats have been discontinued.

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