PUNE: State health minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday told TOI that the government was not planning to increase any curbs after the Ganeshotsav because the weekly positivity rate in the state for the seven-day period ending on September 15 was 2.63% — slightly less than the preceding week’s 2.67%.
“As of now, the daily cases are in the range of 4,000-4,500 in Maharashtra. We had a long discussion with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray after the cabinet meeting. As of now, we are not planning to introduce any new restrictions, but there will be a close watch on any sudden rise in cases, especially in the districts of concern,” he said.
Tope said there could be a slight rise in cases next week, after the festivities. The state public health department had issued guidelines to increase testing and vaccination in its anticipation, he said.
“We have instructed the districts not carrying out enough testing to ramp it up and ensure adequate testing infrastructure is in place for it. A detailed note has been issued by the department to all the collectors and the commissioners. They have to follow it. Along with testing, the scale of vaccination, too, would be ramped up,” he said.
The health minister said there should be no lowering of guard during the festivities. Along with the existing restrictions, he stressed on keeping close tabs on any rise in cases in any particular area. “Strict surveillance should continue,” Tope said.
Following the Centre’s advisory to the state to take extra caution during the Ganesh festivities, the Maharashtra government had issued strict directives to ensure that there was no crowding during the entire festival period.
State surveillance expert Dr Pradip Awate said they were keeping a close watch on if there was any sudden rise in cases in any districts. He said the genomic sequencing samples were being sent as had been the protocol. There has been no further addition to the 103 Delta Plus cases registered in the state in the last week of August.
On the testing front, Awate said the districts registering low testing had been pulled up.
The collectors had been directed to take action against the laboratories not updating both positive and negative Covid test reports within 24 hours on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s portal, he added.
