Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that the state is planning to administer vaccines to 15-18-year-old children in schools.
"We need to focus on the COVID-19 vaccination. We are planning to administer vaccines to 15-18-year-old children in school", Tope was quoted saying by ANI.
Tope added that the Maharashtra government may impose a few more restrictions in wake of rising Omicron cases. CM Uddhav Thackeray will chair a meeting either today or tomorrow with the task force and health department, in this regard.
Tope said that active cases, which were 11,492 on Tuesday, may increase to 20,000 by Wednesday evening in Maharashtra. He further urged citizens to wear masks, maintain social distancing and get fully vaccinated.
"Till now there are 167 Omicron cases in the state. Of these, 19 patients have been discharged. None of these patients were in serious condition. We have to think of imposing restrictions to control crowds in public transport, wedding ceremonies etc," Tope said.
"Worrying to see the number of active cases increasing in the state. Mumbai's positivity rate is at 4%. If this goes above 5%, then we will have to think about imposing restrictions. CM will hold a meeting COVID Task Force soon," he said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 2,172 fresh coronavirus cases, up by 50 per cent from 1,426 infections recorded a day before, and 22 new deaths, the health department said.
With these additions, the state's COVID-19 tally rose to 66,61,486, while the death toll increased to 1,41,476, it said.
However, the silver lining was that the state did not record any fresh case of the new coronavirus variant Omicron in the last 24 hours. The state has so far recorded 167 cases of Omicron, marked as a 'variant of concern' by the WHO that is causing worries all over the world.
On Monday, the state had recorded 1,426 COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths.
(With agency inputs)
