Step up vaccinations, stay on alert for illness clusters: Additional chief secy to district authorities

“We are below the national average,” said Dr Vyas, in an advisory. “We need to be on alert and identify influenza-like illness (ILI) clusters, especially as some new variant is fuelling infections in Israel and other countries,” Dr Vyas has said.

“While we are presently comfortable with around 2,000 active Covid cases, the situation may dramatically change over the next few weeks,” Dr Vyas said in his letter.

“Crowding needs to be avoided and appropriate masking has to be stressed,” he cautioned while directing authorities to step up ILI and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) clusters.

“A few countries have recorded the highest-ever new Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic two years back. South Korea has reported 6.21 lakh new Covid cases in a day and Germany 2.62 lakh new Covid infections. The UK has reported about 94,000 cases in a single day. South Korea’s population is about 5.18 crore and Germany’s is about 8.32 crore. Compared to that, the highest number of cases in Maharashtra, with a population of about 12.2 crore, recorded in a single day so far has been around 68,000 during the second wave. I have given this comparison to show the extent of infection in South Korea and Europe,” Dr Vyas wrote in the letter.

Till date, more than 78 lakh persons have tested positive for Covid-19 while 1.4 lakh people have succumbed to the infection in Maharashtra. With a case fatality rate of 1.82 per cent and few daily Covid infections, restrictions have been relaxed in the state. “However, there is a need to remain alert and ensure vaccination is stepped up,” Dr Vyas said.

According to state health department data, overall, more than 15.82 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered across the state. In the 15-18 age group, over 36.82 lakh youngsters have got the first dose while 22.77 lakh are fully vaccinated. Till March 17, around 10 lakh persons above 60 have got their precaution dose.

When contacted, state surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate said that the authorities have undertaken genome sequencing of more than 20,000 samples so far, adding, the Omicron variant presently is the dominant variant. “We are on an alert and have been following the same strategy of sending samples to Pune Consortium for genome sequencing, and Insacog,” he said.

Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, Head, Department of Microbiology, B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, said that more than 7.2 lakh samples have been tested till date at the laboratory here from March 28, 2020. “We have already experienced Omicron and its sub-variants, including BA.2 during the third wave. So, if there is a spike in cases, there is a possibility of it being due to a new variant. Hence, we are on an alert,” Dr Karyakarte added.