However, the Maharashtra government on Thursday dismissed the lockdown rumours and said that there is no consideration to impose a lockdown in the state as of now. The state government also listed down several conditions under which, the government said, it will consider a lockdown in the state.
According to the Maharashtra Health Department, it will only consider lockdown or lockdown-like restrictions only if the medical oxygen demand in the state goes beyond 800 metric tonnes per day or more than 40 per cent of COVID beds in hospitals are occupied.
The health department further stated that the current surge in new COVID-19 cases, which is led by the new, more infectious variant Omicron, is expected to peak in mid-February and may subside by mid-March.
Maharashtra reported 26,538 fresh COVID-19 cases and eight deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the state health bulletin on Wednesday. Of the new cases, Mumbai reported the highest number of infections at 15,166. As per the health bulletin, 67,576,032 cases have been reported in Maharashtra so far including 87,505 active cases.
With 5,331 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours, the recovery tally in the state mounted to 65,24,247. However, with the addition of new fatalities, the death toll in the state reached 141,581. The case fatality rate is 2.09 per cent.
According to the bulletin, 144 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 were reported in Maharashtra in the last 24 hours. Of these, Mumbai tops the chart with 100 cases, followed by Nagpur with 14 cases, Thane and Pune with seven cases each, Pimpri-Chinchwad with six cases and Kolhapur with five cases.
Amravati, Ulhasnagar and Bhivandi Nizampur reported two Omicron cases each while Panvel and Osmanabad reported one Omicron case each. As per the bulletin, 797 Omicron cases have been reported in the state so far including 330 recoveries.