The Maharashtra health department have advised the district collectorates to remain on high alert amid a surge in the COVID-19 cases in several countries in Asia and around the globe.
This development comes despite Maharashtra continues to report a steep fall in the number coronavirus cases and deaths over the last few months.
Owing to Omicron BA.2 variant of coronavirus, experts are trying to analyse whether the variant can cause a fourth wave of coronavirus in India.
Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that countries like China and South Korea are now experiencing the fourth wave. The Central government is closely watching the situation and the state will accordingly issue fresh guidelines, he added.
On the other hand, several health experts, including the Maharashtra COVID-19 task force, have also recommended being on alert but avoiding panic.
As per the statistics released by the state health department, Maharashtra reported 1,21,513 cases and over 800 deaths between February 1 and 19, 2022. However, in the same period in March, the figures dropped to as low as 5,920 cases and 60 deaths.
However, the state government has taken a cautious stand on the situation.
On Sunday, March 20, the state reported 113 cases taking the tally to 78,72,413 and one death pushed the toll to 1,43,767. There are 1,354 active cases in the state. Whereas, on the same day, Mumbai reported as low as 27 cases and zero deaths.
Meanwhile, Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra, also witnessed a similar trend as 8,000 cases were logged between February 1 and 19. The city saw just 982 cases and two deaths till March 19.
Earlier, on March 17, 2022, the Maharashtra Health Department had issued a circular asking all districts to remain on alert after the additional chief secretary of the public health department, Dr Pradeep Vyas, had stated that the situation may dramatically change in the next few weeks.
The circular was issued in the backdrop of some new variants of the novel coronavirus was suspected to be fuelling the infection in Israel and other countries.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra, which has remained the worst-affected state during the previous waves, is likely to hit fourth wave by June 2022, a mathematical modelling study done by IIT Kanpur researchers mentioned.
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