Mumbai: Amid rise in cases during the second wave and rising threat of Delta Plus variant, the Centre has asked the state government to step up Covid management measures, said deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. He said even though citizens have been administered two doses of Covid vaccines, they will have to strictly follow protocols. Pawar said the Centre has asked the state government to increase testing, tracking, isolation and vaccination in a serious bid to curb the spread of the virus.
This advisory comes when the World Health Organization (WHO) has clearly said that the pandemic has neither slowed down, nor completely gone. The number of daily cases is over 8,000 in the state, with a fatality rate of 2.04%. On Saturday, 8,296 new cases and 179 deaths were reported. There are 1,14,000 active cases and 1,25,528 deaths in the state.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, on July 7, asked the district collectors to put on fast track oxygen generation, its storage and ramp up health facilities to treat patients during the third wave. This is necessary to combat the virus as the second wave has not yet receded and medical experts have predicted the possible third wave.
Public health minister Rajesh Tope told the state legislature in the recently-concluded monsoon session that the districts where people are yet to be administered the second dose, more attention will be paid. He further said that the government will pay attention to districts where the infection was high and are lacking in vaccination.
Moreover, the state government on July 6 in a resolution passed in the state legislature urged the Centre to supply 3 crore vaccine doses per month. This will help the state to increase the pace of vaccination and curb the spread of the virus.
The Centre has, so far, provided 2,84,39,060 vaccine doses and the state government has purchased 25,10,730 doses, the minister said. He added that 3,43,82,583 have been cumulatively vaccinated till now. He said the state has so far conducted 4.25 crore tests, of which 61 lakh have been tested positive and 1.23 lakh have succumbed to the virus.
