Maharashtra govt to decide on easing Covid-19 curbs soon

Mumbai: Following the Centre’s diktat, the Maharashtra government is likely to ease restrictions in the state soon. An order to this effect is likely to be issued in the next couple of days, a senior official from the relief and rehabilitation department said.

Aseem Gupta, principal secretary, relief and rehabilitation department, said that the discussions over easing out restrictions are going on. “Following the directives from the Centre, discussions have begun and it is likely to continue on Friday as there are a lot of things that need to be considered before reaching a conclusion,” Gupta said.

“A meeting is likely to be held with the chief secretary Debashish Chakrabarty and all concerned secretaries after which a proposal will be sent to the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray for final approval,” the official added.

On Wednesday, the central government had asked all states and union territories to review and amend or end additional Covid-19 restrictions as the pandemic in the country indicates a sustained downward trend.

For the fourth day in a row, Maharashtra reported fewer than 3,000 fresh cases. State logged 2,797 fresh infections on Thursday taking the count to 7,853,291. On February 14, 15 and 17, the state had reported 1,966 cases, 2,831 cases and 2,748 cases, respectively.

The tally of active cases came down to 23,816 cases after 6,383 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours. It also saw 40 casualties and the total number of fatalities stood at 143,532.

The state reported no case of Omicron variant on Thursday. At present, the total number of Omicron cases is 4,456 while 3,455 have been discharged following a negative RT-PCR test, stated a release issued by the state health department.

In a letter to all states/union territories issued on February 15, the union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, said, “The Covid-19 pandemic in India is showing a sustained declining trend since January 21, 2022… Presently, as the case trajectory across the nation is showing a sustained downward trend, it will be useful if states/UTs review and amend/do away with the additional restrictions so imposed after considering the trend of new cases, active cases and positivity within the State/UT.”

The union health secretary further asked the state governments to relax the restrictions at their borders and airports so that movement of people and economy is not hampered by additional restrictions imposed at state level points of entry. He directed all the states and union territories to continue monitoring the trajectory of cases daily.

Meanwhile, Mumbai clocked 259 cases and its tally reached a total of 1,054,073 cases to date. It was the third consecutive day when the city reported zero deaths due to Covid-19 and its tally stood at 143,532.

The city’s recovery rate is 97 percent and the mortality rate is 1.58 percent. There are 1,945 active cases in the city and the daily positivity rate reported on Thursday was 0.79 percent. The city’s hospitalisation rate stands at 2.4 percent.

If the downward trend continues, the BMC might start relaxing the restrictions in place for restaurants, bars, gyms, hotels, marriage functions etc., the officials said.

In the last 24 hours, the state tested 119,536 samples and had a positivity rate of 2.33 percent. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 10.22 percent, the statement said.

The state also vaccinated 264,549 doses on Thursday and has administered a total of 153,303,191 doses to date, according to the data available on the Co-Win portal.