What Maharashtra health minister believes to be 'silver lining' amid Covid surge

Amid the spurt in coronavirus cases due to the new strain Omicron, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said the silver lining is that 90% of the infections reported are asymptomatic. “Of the 10% symptomatic patients, only 1-2% require hospitalisation,” he said.

Tope also said that 100% lockdown is not required as of now, but stressed on the need to impose Covid-19 restrictions wherever there is crowding.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with the state's Covid-19 Task Force and officials of the health, planning and finance departments, Tope said, “The Task Force has used the term augmented restrictions, which means if the cases rise like this...we don't have to use the term lockdown. Hundred per cent lockdown is not certainly required as of today.” 

The minister said augmented restrictions means that non-essential activities have to be stopped. “Wherever crowding takes place, there have to be restrictions, but it is not the case that it (curbs) should be brought today,” Tope said. 

He said recommendations of the Task Force will be discussed with Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. The minister strongly emphasised on ramping up the vaccination against COVID-19, and focusing on those who have not taken the jabs and third dose for frontline workers. 

As the cases rise, an aggressive focus will also be on information, education and communication activities on the precautions to be taken after testing positive for the coronavirus, he said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded another sharp rise in coronavirus cases at 18,466 of which Mumbai alone reported 10,860, the highest daily count since April 7, 2021 in the state capital, with the city mayor warning of a lockdown if cases top 20,000 and Pune shutting down schools. 

The state reported 75 new cases of Omicron, taking the tally of those infected with the new variant to 653, the health department said. Twenty fatalities linked to coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the overall toll to 1,41,573, the department said. 

With addition of 18,466 cases, Maharashtra's overall COVID-19 tally rose to 67,30,494, it said. As the cases spiralled across the state over the last 10 days, the active tally stood at 66,308.