Amid lockdown rumours in Maharashtra, the state’s health department on Thursday morning briefed the media that the state is not considering any lockdown or lockdown-like restrictions as of now.

Briefing the current Covid situation of the state, Maharashtra health department said that the state will consider a lockdown or lockdown-like restrictions only if the medical oxygen demand goes beyond 800 metric tonnes a day or more than 40% of Covid-19 beds at hospitals are occupied.

The Shiv Sena ruling state’s health department also said it expected the current Covid surge will be witnessed peak by mid-February and subside by mid-March.

The state’s health department’s briefing on Covid comes a day after Maharashtra reported 26,538 fresh Covid cases, the highest-ever daily count in Mumbai since the pandemic began in December 2019. However, the state’s capital Mumbai recorded 15,166 cases.

The state health department’s statements also comes after Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s meeting with health minister Rajesh Tope and other state health officials to review the Covid-19 situation in the state.

As per the health department’s latest bulletin on Covid, the state’s Covid-19 tally rose to 67,57,032, while the death toll increased to 1,41,581.

The state has also reported a total of 144 fresh Omicron cases reaching the state’s tally to 797.

Earlier on Wednesday, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that 100% lockdown is not required as of now, but stressed the need to impose restrictions wherever there is crowding. 

Over the past few days, hundreds of Maharashtra doctors’s reported Covid positive.

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Over 150 doctors in the Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital, 80 doctors at the Sion Hospital and many others have been tested Covid positive. Across Maharashtra over 260 have tested positive so far, the Association of Resident Doctors said.

60 employees of the city’s public transportation service also tested Covid positive, the ANI reported.

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Hours after the Maharashtra minister announced a five-level unlock plan on Thursday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led government took a U-turn clarifying that new rules to phase out Covid restrictions imposed due to the second wave of the pandemic since mid-April are still under consideration.

In an official statement, Maharashtra CMO said that relaxation of restrictions as per the situation in different areas is only under consideration and no decision has been taken yet. 

The government statement said the state has not completely stopped the corona infection. Infection is still on the rise in some places in rural areas. Considering the deadly and changing form of the coronavirus, it is important to decide whether or not to relax the restrictions. State restrictions have not been lifted, it said.

Last evening, Maharashtra Relief and Rehabilitation minister Vijay Waddettiwar announced that curbs will be lifted in Maharashtra districts where the Covid positivity rate is 5 percent or less and the occupancy of oxygen beds in hospitals is less than 25 percent. Level 1, for example, would mean that the lockdown can be lifted completely. Level 5 is the Red Zone, meaning a complete lockdown, he explained.

Waddettiwar, who briefed the media after a meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, also said 18 districts had been listed for Level 1, including Thane.

However, issuing a clarification on his earlier statement, the minister for Disaster Management, said, in-principle approval was given to phased lifting of lockdown curbs on the basis of positivity rate and availability of oxygen beds, but no final decision was taken.

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Meanwhile, Maharashtra has recorded as many as 15,229 new cases of Coronavirus infections 307 deaths and 25,617 recoveries in the last 24 hours. The overall recovery rate in the state is 94.73 per cent and there are 2,04,974 active cases at the moment. 

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