On a day when COVID-19 cases crossed 8,000 at 8,807 in Maharashtra, including 1,167 cases in Mumbai, the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, unanimously decided to step up its containment measures and aggressively launch awareness campaigns to urge citizens to wear marks, use sanitisers and keep a safe distance. The district administration has been asked to impose stringent curbs to control the spread of the virus.
Further, the cabinet has also insisted that citizens should be urged to implement the Mi Jababdar (I Am Responsible) campaign and called to come forward for the ongoing vaccination. So far, the state has received 32.46 lakh vaccine doses and 18.29 lakh frontline workers have been registered for the vaccination drive.
The doubling rate is 247.51 days, recovery rate is 94.96% and fatality rate is 2.45%.
Of the 36 districts, the state cabinet has decided to keep a close vigil in 10 districts, including Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Nashik, Aurangabad and Jalgaon. According to the Health Department, there are 7,522 serious patients, of which 3,190 are in the ICU, 662 are on ventilators and 2,528 are on oxygen. Moreover, 4,332 patients are outside the ICU, but on oxygen.
Further, the cabinet also discussed the clarification issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). “There is no direct relation between the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra and some other states with the mutant virus strains DN440K and E484Q of COVID-19,’’ said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, ICMR.
ICMR further clarified that these two virus strains have been detected in other countries too and are not specific to India. Moreover, they have been found earlier in some states in India. The E484Q strain was earlier detected in four sequences in Maharashtra as early as March and July 2020. The N440K mutation has been reported on 13 different occasions between May and September 2020 in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Assam. The current upsurge in Maharashtra cannot be attributed to the currently discussed point mutations.
