|HT|
Maharashtra environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday said the state could be seeing the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, while urging people not to panic.
Speaking to reporters, Thackeray said Covid-19 related deaths are not increasing in the state. “We are asking everyone to wear masks when stepping outdoors. We have not made wearing masks mandatory but will make it soon. I also appeal to the public to receive the booster dose of the vaccine on time,” the Maharashtra minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The western state has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases for the past one week and the daily tally has been over the 1,000-mark for the last four days.
On Saturday, Maharashtra added 1,357 cases which pushed the total figure to 78,91,703. Nearly 600 patients recovered and one more patient succumbed to the virus, taking the total number of recoveries and deaths to 77,37,950 and 1,47,865 respectively. A day ago, state health minister Rajesh Tope said that wearing masks is not mandatory yet in public places, but appealed to people to wear them in areas of Covid-19 surge.
“The Covid-19 task force met this week and it was decided to appeal to the citizens to use masks both in crowded places as well as closed places like buses, trains, schools and offices. This is an appeal and we have not made masks compulsory till now,” Tope said in Pune.
He said the current surge in cases in Maharashtra was confined to specific districts including Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Thane, Palghar and Raigad.
“Despite the surge in cases, there are hardly any hospitalization cases. Patients are getting well within eight days due to their immunity," the Maharashtra health minister added.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)