Beat Omicron with jab and Covid-appropriate behaviour, says Cabinet

A health worker gives a COVID vaccine shot to a beneficiary, at a temporary vaccination centre, in Chembur. File pic

As a vaccine is one of the potent preventive measures against COVID-19 in view of the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant, the state Cabinet feels there is a need to speed up immunisation as quickly as possible. Currently, 4.37 crore people in Maharashtra are fully vaccinated and 7.65 crore have taken their first dose.

At the weekly COVID-19 review meeting on Wednesday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his cabinet colleagues were briefed about the global spread of Omicron.

In a statement, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said the number of Omicron cases across 54 countries has increased by 45 per cent in just 12 hours. "France has a daily caseload of over 40,000, while Germany has 50,000. Austria is facing the biggest wave ever. America, with 1 lakh daily cases, has a condition akin to November 2020. South Africa is seeing cases double every day over the past two weeks," it added.

The CMO said that Thackeray has expressed the need for strict enforcement of COVID-19 protocols in the state and increased vaccination in districts where the lag is wide.

An attendee of the meeting said the major concern was about the high transmissibility of Omicron.

"Though the death rate of the new variant is not much high, the number of infections an affected individual can cause and the chain reaction that follows will overburden the healthcare infrastructure. It will also put co-morbid people at some risk. The only way of prevention is COVID-appropriate behaviour (CAB)," he said.

7.65cr
No. of adults in state who have taken one shot