Will there be a lockdown in Maharashtra? Here’s what the health minister says

With Maharashtra witnessing a record-breaking spike in daily Covid-19 cases after a gap of months, people anticipating another lockdown has become obvious.  However, Maharashtra health Minister Rajesh Tope has made it clear that the state government has not discussed anything related to Covid lockdown yet. He added that the government will take a decision about restrictions by taking into consideration the case positivity rate, hospital bed occupancy, and oxygen consumption.

"If the daily (medical) oxygen requirement crosses 700 metric tons, then the state will go into lockdown automatically," the minister told PTI news agency.

Recently, Disaster management minister Vijay Wadettiwar had said the day before that the "stage of fresh lockdown" was nearing, but the decision will be taken by the chief minister.

Yesterday, Maharashtra's additional chief secretary of health Dr Pradeep Vyas has predicted that there would be 2 lakh active cases in the state by the third week of January.

He also warned people to not take the Omicron surge lightly. "Don't be lulled by the narrative that third wave or Omicron wave is mild and not fatal. It's equally fatal for those who are not vaccinated and have comorbidities. So please improve vaccination coverage and save lives," he said.

Meanwhile, as many as 10 ministers of the Maharashtra government and 20 MLAs have been infected with coronavirus, the state's Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar informed.

Maharashtra accounts for the highest Omicron cases in the country at present, According to the union health ministry data, the state has logged a total of 454 cases of Omicron as of January 1, of which 167 have been discharged.

Yesterday, Maharashtra reported 9,170 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths in a span of 24 hours. The state, which witnessed a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases in the last 11 days of 2021, also recorded six new Omicron variant infections.