Maharashtra brings back mask mandate as cases rise – Times of India

MUMBAI: After three days of high Covid-19 numbers and a missive from the Centre about the near-doubling of cases within a week in six districts, the Maharashtra health department on Friday announced that masks should be worn in all places except open spaces. The rule had been relaxed completely from April 2.
State additional secretary (health) Dr Pradeep Vyas wrote to all district authorities saying “mask in closed public spaces like trains, buses, cinemas, auditoriums, offices, hospitals, colleges, schools is (a) must”. Cases and hospitalisations could increase in the coming days, Vyas told TOI.
Rising cases & Centre’s letter prod state to act
The state’s announcement of compulsory masking-up in public, except in open spaces, was part of a strategy plan— including increased testing, ensuring availability of beds and carrying out genomic testing—to check the surge and “keep hospitalisations to a minimum’’.
The updated plan came just as the state recorded three deaths (one each in Pune, Solapur and Beed), the maximum since April 26. Over 1,000-plus cases were recorded for the third day on Friday (1,134), including 763 in Mumbai.
The rising numbers prompted the union health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, to dash off a letter about the near doubling of cases within a week in six districts: Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban, Pune, Palghar, Raigad and Thane.
Bhushan noted while cases in Maharashtra had increased from 2,471 to 4,883 in the week between May 27 and June 3, the Covid tally in Mumbai had reached “2x” proportions in the same period. He also wrote to health secretaries of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka about the rising graph and the need to get back to basics of testing, tracking, treating and vaccinating people. A few hours after Bhushan’s letter, Dr Vyas dashed off a guide to all districts and corporations. He has asked for an increase in tests with steps taken to ensure 60% are through Rt-PCR.
Stating there is a need to increase whole genome sequencing to identify any new variant in circulation, Dr Vyas said, “Private labs should be asked to refer Rt-PCR positive samples for whole genome sequencing.” As 7 cases of the newer Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 were identified in Pune last week, doctors said the rise could be the result of the newer sublineages in circulation. “Though results of genomic sequencing from Mumbai should be available in a day or two, it is clear BA.4 and BA.5 variants are behind surge too,” said a BMC doctor.
At present, the proportion of patients requiring oxygen therapy is around 1.5% of total active cases and hospital admissions are around 3% of active cases. “However, the difference between proportion of critical patients out of active patients, between the first and second fortnights of May 2022, has been found statistically significant, which points to a possibility of increase in this number in the near future,” Dr Vyas said.