COVID-19 pandemic in Maharashtra
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian state of Maharashtra was confirmed on 9 March 2020. The largest single day spike (68,631 cases), highest peak in all of India was reported on 18 April 2021. Maharashtra is a hotspot that accounts for nearly 22.35 % of the total cases in India as well as about 30.55 % of all deaths. As of 10 May 2021, the state's case fatality rate is nearly 1.49%. Pune is the worst-affected city in Maharashtra, with about 930,809 cases as of 10 May 2021. About half of the  cases in the state emerged from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Timeline. October 2020. The Lineage B.1.617 variant was first found on 5 October 2020 near Nagpur. Government response. Lockdown. March. On 13 March, the Government of Maharashtra declared the outbreak an epidemic in the cities of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune (PMC & PCMC Administration) and Nagpur, and invoked provisions of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 which enabled it to forcibly hospitalise anyone with suspected symptoms. Commercial establishments such as movie halls, malls, swimming pools and gyms were shut across the state as a precaution. Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, issued  a ban on all public gatherings and functions. Pune Municipal Corporation decided to close all public gardens and Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, effective from 14 March, to contain the spread of the virus. On 17 March, Section 144 was imposed in Nagpur and Nashik. On 18 March, the Federation of Trade Association of Pune announced that all shops, barring grocery stores and pharmacies, will be shut in the city, resulting in the closure of up to 40,000 shops. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced that shops and commercial establishments across several wards in Mumbai would be closed on alternate days, in  order to implement social distancing and crowd management. On 19 March, the dabbawalas in Mumbai suspended their services until 31 March. On 20 March, Thackeray announced that all workplaces, excluding essential services and public transport, in Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune and Nagpur will be closed until 31 March. He also urged people of the state to not step out of the house without the necessity of doing so. On 22 March, Thackeray declared that Section 144 would be imposed across the state, with effect from 23 March, sending the state into lockdown. On 23 March, he announced that borders  of all the districts will be closed, and a strict curfew will be implemented statewide. April. On 11 April, Thackeray announced that the lockdown in the state will be extended until "at least 30 April". On 14 April, he announced the formation of a COVID-19 Task Force, comprising leading doctors, to advise the state government on means to control the outbreak. On 17 April, state government decided to relax lockdown restrictions, allowing certain economic activities such as agriculture, construction and manufacturing to resume from 20 April in non-containment zones. However, on 21 April, as the number of cases continued  to surge, the government withdrew the relaxation in MMR and Pune. Containment measures. On 26 March, BMC started marking pitches, one metre away from each other, outside grocery stores, fruits and vegetables shops in the city, in order to maintain social distancing. This model was first implemented in Pune on 24 March. From 1 April, Mumbai Police started using a network of 5,000 CCTV cameras along with drones in order to monitor different parts of the city and ensure that the lockdown is observed. Apart from Mumbai, drones were also used in densely-populated areas of Thane district such as  Mumbra and Bhiwandi for aerial surveillance and relaying audio messages and warnings. On 8 April, Mumbai became the first Indian city to make wearing facemasks in public places compulsory. On the following day, the state government decided to deploy State Reserve Police Force in the city for stricter enforcement of the lockdown. On 31 May, the Maharashtra Government issued detailed guidelines for offices, which include mandatory thermal screening, use of sanitisers and social distancing. In June, the cases in Dharavi, Mumbai dropped significantly because of preventive measures like testing and early isolation. Nagpur Municipal Corporation has adopted an Incident Response  System which includes a comprehensive survey, contact tracing system, corona war room, control room. The corporation also conducted door-to-door surveys covering 5.67 lakh houses and 24 lakh people. The civic body has also started shifting homeless people to city shelters. As of 27 March, they have shifted 300 persons and also got medical check-ups done for them. Hotspots and Containment zones. Several places in the state, where multiple confirmed cases were reported, were sealed off to prevent community spread. These areas included Islampur in Sangli (on 28 March), Worli Kolivada in Mumbai (on 30 March), Peth area  and parts of Kondhwa in Pune (on 6 April). By 9 April, BMC identified 381 containment zones within the city; several parts of the city including Dharavi were sealed off as the number of confirmed cases rose sharply in April. The central government classified the country's districts into zones based on the extent of the spread of virus, with 14 districts in Maharashtra being identified as hotspots and labelled as red zones. The state government announced that it would relax the lockdown restrictions in districts with fewer than 15 confirmed cases. Quarantine. Thackeray announced that the number of testing  labs and their capacities would be increased, as will the capacity of quarantine facilities. Some educational institutions are also being used as quarantine centres. Economic response. On 16 March, the Government of Maharashtra allocated 45 crore to the districts with confirmed cases. Impacts. Education. Maharashtra government cancelled all the exams from grades 1–8 to make it easier to contain the Coronavirus outbreak among school students. The students of grades 1 to 8 were directly promoted to the next grade. Mumbai university canceled the examinations of its first and second-year students respectively and the education minister of Maharashtra wrote a  letter to the university to cancel the examinations of its third-year students. Maharashtra board also cancelled class 10th and 12th board exams. After 4 October 2021, Maharashtra will reopen schools for certain standards accordingly.Physical classes would not resume yet for standards 1st to 7th in urban areas and standards 1st to 4th in rural areas. Religious Places. After a long pause on reopening of religious places, the Maharashtra government announced that religious places would reopen from 7 October 2021, the first day of Navaratri. Leisure Activities. From 15 August 2021, malls were allowed to reopen in Maharashtra but  with only fully vaccinated individuals allowed to enter. Dine-in services and shops also were allowed to stay open till 10pm. On 25 September 2021, the Maharashtra Government announced the reopening of Cinema halls and drama theatres from 22 October. Transport. Over 20,000 bus services of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation were cancelled since 11 March, which caused the organisation losses of 3 crore by 17 March. Indian Railways cancelled 23 trains from the state in order to prevent the spread of the virus to other states. Government of Gujarat started screening people entering from Mumbai and other borders  with Maharashtra by mid of March. The state border was sealed completely during the first lockdown. Since Mumbai started facing the pandemic before Gujarat these precautionary measures were taken as soon as the first lockdown began. Government of Telangana implemented screening of people entering the state of Telangana from Maharashtra at four entry points. Government of Madhya Pradesh suspended all bus services between Indore and Maharashtra until 31 March. On 22 March, the Indian Railways announced that the Mumbai Suburban Railway will be closed between 22 and 31 March. Mumbai Monorail and Mumbai Metro services were also cancelled until the  end of the month. Thackeray announced that state-run and private bus services will be suspended for the general public until further notice. Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), the state's biggest passenger transporter is diversifying 310 public transportation buses into goods transportation buses in Nagpur, because of depleting revenue due to the lockdown. The target is to convert 3,000 buses. Tourism. Tourist spots in the state like Ajanta and Ellora Caves in Aurangabad district, Elephanta Island in Raigad district and Gateway of India in Mumbai reportedly witnessed a sharp decline in the number of visitors. Hotel, cab and  private bus businesses in the state also reported a high number of booking cancellations in March. Amidst a surge in confirmed cases across the state, the health officials declared that several tourist and religious sites will be closed down as a precautionary measure. These sites included Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, Tulja Bhavani Temple in Osmanabad district, Ajanta and Ellora Caves in Aurangabad district, Dagadusheth Halwai Ganapati Temple in Pune, Mumba Devi Temple in Mumbai and Saibaba Temple in Shirdi. Entry restrictions were also enforced at Mantralaya, Mumbai. Mumbai Police placed a ban on all group tours in the city until  31 March. Economic effects. The virus outbreak had a significant impact on the automobile sector in the state, according to a CNBC TV18 article on 21 March. Bajaj Auto closed down its manufacturing facilities in Akurdi and Chakan until 30 March, while Tata Motors scaled down operations in its Pune plant. Eicher Motors and Ashok Leyland shut down components plant in Thane and Bhandara respectively. Mercedes-Benz suspended operations at its Chakan facility until 31 March. Fiat, Force Motors and JCB also announced suspension of operations at units in Ranjangaon, Akurdi and Chakan respectively, until 31 March. Mahindra & Mahindra also  declared that it would suspend manufacturing at its Nashik plant and production at its Chakan and Kandivali units, starting from 23 March. According to a 17 March article in the Indian Express, the economy of Mumbai was projected to suffer losses worth at least 16,000 crore per month in the service sector, as a result of the outbreak. In addition, it predicted that the city's tourism industry would lose 2,200 crore per month from international tourists. The entertainment industry in the state also suffered financially, with several Bollywood films postponing release dates or halting production, causing an "acute financial  crunch" for many members of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees. Bollywood films were estimated to lose box office revenue of over 1,300 crore due to the lockdown. On 30 March, the state government slashed electricity tariff by an average of 8 percent for a period of five years in order to minimize the economic impact of the outbreak on industries. Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, Ajit Pawar, announced that the March salaries of all elected representatives (MLAs, MLCs and Chief Minister) would be cut by 60 percent, while some of the government employees will also see 25  to 50 percent salary cuts due to the economic crisis arising from outbreak and lockdown. Efforts to improve the economy. According to the Maharashtra government, 60,000 industries have been re-opened in the state, which employ close to 1.5 million people. The government also states that there have been investment intentions (FDI) from countries such as Germany, Japan, Russia. Migrant workers. After the enforcement of lockdown, scores of migrant labourers in Maharashtra who were left without work began to leave for their respective states. Thousands of workers reportedly started going to Gujarat and Rajasthan by foot as transport facilities were  suspended, but were stranded at the state border. Thackeray appealed to the migrant workers to not travel back to their states, and announced a 45 crore package to provide food and accommodation for migrant labourers. On 30 March, the state government set up 262 relief camps across the state, providing food and shelter to 70,339 migrant workers and homeless people. On 8 April, it was reported that 4,653 camps were functioning across the state, which housed more than 550,000 people. These camps were started by district administrations, labour department, irrigation department and cooperative sugar mills. Several employers such as Larsen  & Toubro, Godrej Group and Shapoorji Pallonji announced that they would provide food, accommodation and wages to their migrant labourers. On 14 April, thousands of migrant workers protested against the lockdown near Bandra railway station in Mumbai, and demanded to be sent back to their states. Police made use of baton charges to disperse the unruly crowd and control the situation. By 1 May, authorities reported that 11.86 lakh migrant workers had been taken back to their home state by at least 822 Shramik special trains. Violation of norms. After many suspected patients fled from isolation wards of hospitals, the state  government directed officials at hospitals and airports to stamp the left hand of people placed under 14-day home quarantine with details of their quarantine period using indelible ink, so as to easily identify them. It also announced that those who violate the quarantine will be isolated at a government facility. Testing. Until mid-March, the state had three testing facilities, which also tested samples from some other states for confirmation, viz. National Institute of Virology in Pune, Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital in Nagpur and Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai. As of 19 June 2020, the state had 61  government labs and 43 private labs approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research set up across the state. As of 10 April, Maharashtra has tested the most samples by any state in the country. Experts attribute the high number of positive cases in the state to "increased testing and surveillance" being done by the state authorities.