After the positivity rate of Maharashtra's second-largest city dipped below 5%, the Pune Municipal Corporation has announced more relaxation in Covid-induced restrictions from 14 June.
The Maharashtra government had recently eased curbs from 7 June as part of a plan in which districts are placed in five categories depending on the infection positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy levels.
While Pune was in category 3 on 7 June, it will now move up to category 2, and enjoy more easing of restrictions, as the positivity rate stands at 4.95% and the bed occupancy is 23.33% as on Friday, civic officials informed.
Under category 2, shops dealing in essential items can stay open till 7 pm daily, and those selling non-essential items can operate in the same time segment on weekdays.
"Malls, restaurants, bars, eateries, and hotels, coaching classes, training institutes, study rooms, and libraries have been given permission to operate with 50 percent seating capacity," an official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Gardens, playgrounds, etc will also remain open from 5 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 7 pm, while private offices can function with 50% staff.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Friday added 2,213 fatalities to the overall coronavirus death toll in the state, taking it to 1,06,367, after a "scrutiny of laboratory reports for Covid-19 determination" and resultant updating of figures.
During the day, the state reported 406 new deaths and 11,766 infections.
Compared to Thursday, the death count thus went up by 2,619. The state's caseload rose to 58,87,853, the health department said.
Earlier in the day, the state health department had said that between 26 May to 10 June this year, as many as 8,074 coronavirus deaths took place. This was a revised figure, it said, without disclosing the earlier estimate.
As the number of cases was high in April and May, there was more burden on the government machinery which in some cases led to a delayed recording of data, it said.
With 8,104 people discharged, the tally of recovered patients reached 56,16,857. The recovery rate stood at 95.4% while the fatality rate was 1.81%.
The number of active Covid-19 cases stood at 1,61,704.
With 2,54,301 new tests, the number of coronavirus tests conducted in the state increased to 3,76,11,005. Mumbai reported 721 Covid-19 cases and 24 deaths, increasing its caseload to 7,14,216 and death toll to 15,079.
Nashik division reported 1,103 new Covid-19 cases and 27 deaths, of which 20 fatalities were reported from Ahmednagar district.
In the Pune division, 2,573 new Covid-19 infections were recorded, along with 79 deaths. Forty of the deaths were reported in rural parts of the Pune district alone.
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