Maharashtra’s health minister Rajesh Tope said on Sunday that if coronavirus infections continue to rise in the state, mandatory mask rule will be reinstated. “If the number of cases of Covid-19 continues to climb, we will have to make mask use mandatory,” the minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“Our goal is to speed up vaccination, and we will take all necessary means to ensure that youngsters are vaccinated,” he added.
The announcement came after Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray too urged people to wear face masks before going outside, saying that precautions were needed to prevent a “fourth wave of the pandemic” from arriving on their doorstep. Thackeray made the call following a review meeting on Covid with numerous high authorities, including divisional commissioners, municipal commissioners, zilla parishad CEOs, and top police officers, reports said.
Maharashtra cases
While the state has the most overall cases in the country, with more than 78.7 lakh infections so far, the daily tally has been below 200 since late March. The state on Saturday reported 155 new coronavirus cases and one pandemic-related death, the state health department said.
There are 998 active cases in Maharashtra now. On Friday, the state had reported 148 new infections and two deaths. As many as 135 patients recovered during the day, increasing the tally of recovered cases to 77,28,891. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region — comprising Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and neighbouring areas — reported 115 infections during the day.
The Pune division — which comprises Pune, Solapur and Satara districts — recorded 27 new cases. The lone death was reported from Mumbai. Maharashtra’s recovery rate is now 98.11 per cent while the death rate is 1.87 per cent. With 26,995 new coronavirus tests conducted since previous evening, the number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra rose to 8,01,88,145.
11-point action plan to follow amid rising cases
As the number of Covid cases in Maharashtra rises, the state administration has devised eleven action items for all districts to follow in order to stop the virus from spreading, the Mint said in a report.
Increased Covid-19 tests, sending samples for genome sequencing when a cluster of three to seven cases is discovered, urging people to wear masks in enclosed locations such as movie halls, offices, and auditoriums, and promoting immunisation are among the eleven point activities.
Dr. Pradeep Vyas, the additional chief secretary, wrote a letter early this week directing all districts to complete ongoing work on oxygen producing plants and to keep the current oxygen store full.
The state has also ordered districts to increase influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) surveillance and promote immunisation in all age groups, the report said. The state issued a warning to the districts concerning the district’s low immunisation rate in all categories when compared to the national average.
“Following the state’s letter, we convened a meeting with all health authorities and instructed them to focus on raising awareness about mask use and vaccination,” Dr Yogesh Sale, Kolhapur’s district health officer was quoted in the report as saying.
Active covid cases up in Mumbai by 70%
In the last 14 days, the number of active Covid-19 cases in Mumbai has increased by 70%. Though the number of cases has climbed in the last two weeks, hospitalisation rates have remained stable—only two people are currently on ventilators, a report by the Mid day said.
According to data provided by the BMC health department, there were 346 active cases in the city on April 15. On April 29, the number of cases had risen to 589. Only 27 individuals had been admitted to hospitals as of April 29. The other 25 patients have mild to moderate symptoms, while two are on ventilators and in serious condition.
A total of 84% of the 589 active patients are asymptomatic. “At the moment, we have only seven patients in our hospital,” Dr Balkrishna Adsul, dean of Seven Hills Hospital, told mid-day. “Three are in the isolation block, while the other four have been in ICU for the last one month.” They are negative, but they have other issues. Though the number of new patients has increased slightly, there has been no rise in severity.”
K’taka, Chhattisgarh govts had earlier made masks compulsory again
The Karnataka and Chhattisgarh governments had last week Monday issued guidelines making wearing of face-masks compulsory.
“Masks should be worn compulsorily, especially at places where there is a crowd and in indoor places, social distancing has to be maintained. Guidelines will be issued today to this effect. We have not taken any decision regarding imposing any penalty immediately,” Health Minister K Sudhakar had said after taking part in a meeting with CM Basavaraj Bommai, senior ministers, officials and the COVID-19 technical advisory committee (TAC) of experts.
The minister said the number of positive cases has slightly increased in Bengaluru, where the positivity rate is 1.9 per cent, and the situation would be monitored and supervised with guidelines about the treatment if required.
And after removing the necessity for masks less than three weeks ago, the Chhattisgarh government issued a circular to all divisional commissioners and district collectors last week to ensure that Covid regulations are followed. According to the order, there will be no penalties for not wearing a face mask in public locations.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment