With Maharashtra witnessing a steep rise in COVID-19 cases over the past few days, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday hinted that more restrictions across the State would be in place soon if people did not strictly follow pandemic norms.
Noting that the active case tally in the State, which had stood between 5,000-6,000 till a couple of weeks back had now shot to 11,492, Mr. Tope expressed alarm on the rapid doubling of cases.
“It is being seen that social functions and gatherings are going on in an unbridled manner with people throwing caution to the winds by not adhering to pandemic norms. If people do not follow rules, cases will rise exponentially, and in that event, the possibility of a further tightening of norms cannot be ruled out,” said the Minister, referring to Delhi which has clamped down on social activities.
Noting the particularly drastic rise in Mumbai city, which was seeing the highest rise in fresh COVID-19 cases among all cities in Maharashtra, Mr. Tope said that Mumbai, which was reporting barely 300 cases daily a few days ago, was now reporting more than 1,300 cases daily.
“The cases here are expected to rise further…they have risen seven-fold in the last week or so. We are conducting 51,000 tests daily in Mumbai alone, but even after this, the case positivity rate there is 4% which is certainly not good news,” the Minister said.
He also expressed concern at the sagging pace of vaccination, remarking that the daily vaccination rate in the State has fallen from eight lakh doses to five lakh doses.
“I urge the local leadership, be they MLAs from all political parties, or NGOs or religious leaders to come together and dispel negative notions prevailing among certain communities regarding vaccination,” Mr. Tope said.
CM to hold meeting
He informed that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will be holding a meeting of the State task force on COVID-19 soon.
In another development, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule, who is the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, has tested positive for COVID-19.
