Mumbai: Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope has clarified that the use of masks is not yet mandatory in the state but appealed to people to wear masks as a precaution to avoid infection due to rising COVID-19 cases, especially in six districts including Mumbai.
Earlier, Maharashtra public health additional chief secretary Pradeep Vyas had asked civic and district administration to take steps to keep the rising number of cases under control and keep hospital admission to a minimum.
“Mask in closed public spaces like trains, buses, cinemas, auditoriums, offices, hospitals, colleges, schools are a must,” he said.
In the last week, as many as nine districts of Maharashtra have shown growth in the number of new cases as compared to the week preceding that. ln view of this, steps will need to be taken to keep the surge under control and to keep hospital admissions to a minimum.
ln order to understand various patterns and possible variations, the following actions should be taken – which are to keep track of the overall clinical spectrum of cases. Analyze the proportion of breakthrough infection and reinfection cases periodically. On Friday 1,134 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths were reported. Out of the new cases, 763 were from Mumbai.
(Vinayak)
