COVID: Maharashtra CM holds meeting with task forces; discusses fresh curbs, vaccination

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Thursday, December 30, held an emergency review meeting with task forces amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the state. According to State Health Minister Rajesh Tope, the meeting was aimed to discuss the restrictions to be imposed after the state recorded more than 5,000 COVID cases in 24 hours.

Rajesh Tope said, 'The Chief Minister will take the final call on the restrictions that need to be imposed as COVID cases are rapidly increasing in the state."

Providing details on the state's preparedness, the health minister informed, every RT-PCR lab should use S-gene Target Failure (SGTF) kit. "We will use SGTF kit to differentiate Delta from Omicron case. This will make it easy for doctors to treat Omicron patients", he added.

Maharashtra Govt on COVID situation in Mumbai

As of Thursday, December 30, Mumbai has reported 3,671 fresh COVID cases with 371 recoveries in the last 24 hours. The active caseload stands at 11,360. Out of the total cases in the city, Dharavi has recorded 20 cases, the highest since May 18.

According to Rajesh Tope, the positivity rate is increasing in Mumbai which is an indication of community spread. He stated the government is looking into the matter and discussion for the same is underway.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray chaired the emergency review meeting which lasted for two hours had a detailed discussion over work from home or other regulations. But, CM is yet to take a final call on the matters.

Maharashtra's COVID vaccination drive

Providing details on vaccinating children aged between 12 to 18 years, the Health Minister said, "We will vaccinate the children in their nearest vaccination Centre in batches". To date, Maharashtra has administered a total of 13,32,12,683 COVID vaccines across 8,443 vaccination sites. It is learned that the Chief Minister will hold meetings with district authorities where vaccination is low.

As of Thursday, December 30, Maharashtra has reported 5,368 fresh COVID cases with 1,193 recoveries, and 22 deaths. The active caseload stands at 18,217. The number of Omicron cases in the state has spiked to 450, with the state recording 198 cases of the variant today, Dec 30.

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