Amid rising COVID 19 and Omicron Variant cases in Maharashtra and also in the wake of dip in daily vaccination does to below 5 lakh from 8 lakh, the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who virtually chaired the state cabinet meeting on Monday, asked the administration to increase the pace of vaccination. He also announced that he will chair a meeting of the Task Force on COVID 19 in a day or two to discuss further measures to curb the virus infection. The state cabinet expressed serious concern over the surge in cases.

Thackeray asked the district guardian minister to step up the pace of vaccination in their respective districts. On Sunday, 84,191 were inoculated and cumulatively the state has vaccinated 13,10,21,074 beneficiaries.

CM’s directive came at a time when the daily COVID 19 positive, which used to be 600 to 700 per day, have now crossed 1,400 cases per day while the total number of Omicron Variant cases rose to 167 of which 72 have been discharged after their negative RTPCR reports. On Monday, the state reported 1,426 new COVID 19 positive and 26 new Omicron Variant cases. As of today, there are 10,441 active cases in the state.

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The public health department additional chief secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas told the cabinet that the number of active patients rose to 10,441 on December 27 from 6,200 on December 8 which is a rise of 63.56%. In the last six days there has been a three-fold increase in the number of COVID 19 positive patients in the state. State has reported a weekly positivity rate of 1.06%.

Dr Vyas said that the active COVID 19 cases are expected to surge further in mid-January.

Thackeray last week has urged the citizens to strictly follow the covid appropriate behavior even by those who are fully vaccinated.

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