Representational Image.  |  Photo Credit: PTI
Key Highlights
- Maharashtra reported 26,538 new cases, 8 deaths and 5,331 discharges today
- The state’s Omicron case tally currently stands at 797, including 330 recoveries
- Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that stricter restrictions mean non-essential activities have to be immediately stopped
Mumbai: At a time when the country is bracing for a potential third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Maharashtra is once again at the center point of the pandemic as cases in the western state is spiking at an alarming rate, especially in Mumbai.
However, despite the surge in infections, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday clarified that the state government is not planning to impose a 100 per cent lockdown “as of now”, though the need to impose stricter restrictions remains.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the state’s Covid-19 Task Force, Tope said that the state had reported more than 16,000 cases on Tuesday.
Maharashtra reported 26,538 new cases, 8 deaths and 5,331 discharges today. The state’s Omicron case tally currently stands at 797, including 330 recoveries.
“The Task Force has used the term augmented restrictions, which means if the cases rise like this…we don’t have to use the term lockdown. Hundred per cent lockdown is not certainly required as of today,” Tope said.
He said that stricter restrictions mean non-essential activities have to be immediately stopped.
“Wherever crowding takes place, there have to be restrictions, but it is not the case that it (curbs) should be brought today,” he said, according to news agency PTI.
The recommendations of the Task Force will be discussed with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Tope said.
The Health Minister, however, said the silver lining among all this is that 90 per cent of the infections are asymptomatic, and of the 10 per cent symptomatic cases, only 1-2 per cent needs hospitalisation.
Maharashtra has witnessed a sharp spike in daily cases over the past two weeks.
Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had on Tuesday declared that if the daily caseload crosses the 20,000-mark, it would be imperative that a lockdown be imposed in India’s financial capital, albeit as per the Union government’s rules.