Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided that home isolation will not be allowed henceforth in 18 districts that are in the Covid-19 red zone. The district administrations have been directed to increase the number of covid care centres in these districts. The decision was taken after a meeting of the state government and district authorities. In short, if you test positive and are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, you won’t be allowed home isolation anymore.

The list includes Pune, Satara, Solapur, Mumbai city, Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Sindhudurg, Raigad, Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Beed, Hingoli, Latur, Nanded, Amravati, Akola, Dhule, and Nagpur. However, hours after the announcement, BMC commissioner in a u-turn that home isolation for covid patients will be allowed in Mumbai.“We have asked these districts to increase the bed capacity. We have asked these districts to focus on testing. The focus should be on high-risk contacts of positive patients," state health minister Rajesh Tope told reporters after the meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar along with other authorities. The decision to restrict home isolation was taken so that the patients receive better treatment at covid care centres and curb infection spread. The district collectors have been asked to conduct fire and electric audits of government hospitals. “We will provide them with funds after they submit the report," he added. For the likely third wave warned to be a risk for children, Tope said “we are ramping health infrastructure especially the paediatric centres."On the issue of global tenders to procure covid vaccines, the state health minister said, “We’ve got a response from few companies including Pfizer, Sputnik, and AstraZeneca…they are yet to give us supply schedules."Maharashtra has been reporting over 20,000 cases on a daily basis despite almost lockdown-like curbs in place. The number of cases in the above districts has been adding to the state’s count even though there has been a consistent decline. Sources said that the decision has been taken because people were found blatantly violating home isolation norms.“The danger of the spread of virus increases if Covid-19 positive persons do not follow protocol," an official said.