As the threat of the Omicron variant looms, Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray has, in a letter to Union Health minister Mansukh Mandviya, requested him to reduce the minimum age of vaccination from 18 years to 15 years, in order to keep school and college-going students safe from the infection.
He also requested the minister to allow the third shot to health care workers and front line workers who have received both doses.
Thackeray also recommended that gap between doses be reduced for wider coverage in shorter span of time.
"If the gap between two doses is reduced to four weeks, just like for those applying to work or study abroad, the city will cover 100% of its population with the second dose by mid-January 2022, without asking for more vaccines or altering its delivery schedule," Thackeray said.
On Monday, Maharashtra reported cases of Covid-19 variant Omicron for the third consecutive day, with two more in Mumbai taking the state's tally to 10, health officials said.
A 37-year-old man who arrived here from South Africa's Johannesburg on November 25 has tested positive and also his 36-year-old friend who landed in Mumbai from the US on the same day.
Both patients have not shown symptoms and are admitted to the BMC's Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri east.
The two patients have taken jabs of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine.
Additionally, five high-risk and 315 low-risk contacts of both the men have also been traced and further tracking is underway.
The development followed 7 persons testing Omicron positive on Sunday, including a Nigerian woman, 44, of Indian origin,, and her two daughters arriving in Pune from Lagos, and a man coming here after a visit to Finland.
Even the 45-year old brother of the 44-year old woman and his two children were infected and tested positive for Omicron, and all seven are under treatment at a hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The health authorities have traced another 13 close contacts of the three Nigerian women and surveillance of people arriving by flights from the 'high risk' or 'at risk' nations to Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur has been intensified.
On December 4, the state's first Omicron patient was confirmed in Thane when a 33-year-old man arrived from Capetown via Dubai and New Delhi to Mumbai, tested positive. He is undergoing treatment at a Covid Centre in Kalyan-Dombivali.
Of the total 34,700 passengers who arrived including 6,263 from the risk nations, 6,898 have undergone RT-PCR tests, and reports of 11 who tested positive have been sent for genomic sequencing, said the Health Department.
(With agency inputs)
