About 72 per cent of Maharashtra’s active Covid cases are being reported from five districts. This includes Mumbai and Thane districts, which appeared in the top five for the first time in the last few weeks.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Monday, warned that the State will pay a heavy price if warnings about a possible third wave are ignored.

Pune leads

According to the State Health Department data (as of 4 pm on Monday), Pune, with 12,325 active cases, lead the chart of active cases, followed by Thane (7,273), Satara (6,603), Ahmednagar (5,701) and Mumbai (4,003).

With 50,095 active cases, Maharashtra recorded a fatality rate of 2.12 per cent, with a recovery rate of 97.05 per cent.

“We all know how the second wave started. There was an acute shortage of oxygen, and the situation became critical not only in Maharashtra, but also in other parts of the country. Maharashtra, along with other States, is on the verge of the third wave of Covid. “This wave has started knocking on the doors. The situation in the US is life-threatening. China is in the grip of Covid, and more than 30,000 new patients are being found daily in Kerala. This is a warning, and Maharashtra will pay a heavy price if we don’t take this warning seriously,” said CM Thackeray while speaking at a meeting of the Disaster Management in Mumbai.

“There is some rise in the number of Covid patients in Maharashtra. I request political parties and organisations to suspend all political programmes, meetings and marches, considering the experience of the last wave. Other programmes could be celebrated following Covid norms, but avoiding the third wave and priority to public health must not be compromised,” he said.

He added: “We can celebrate festivals next time, but every life is important. Covid is re-emerging. The coming days will be challenging, and if we don’t want the situation to go out hands, political parties will have to take responsibilities.”

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