Friday, 18 June 2021 | TN Raghunatha | Mumbai
Delta+ may unleash tragedy soon unless Covid-appropriate behaviour is followed: Maha Task force
Maharashtra on Thursday began to gear itself for Covid-19 “third wave”, which the State Task Force apprehended might be unleashed in the State by a high virulent strain Delta Plus in the next “two to four weeks” if the pandemic-appropriate norms were not followed by the people.
A day after the State Covid-19 Task Force made a presentation before Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the possible break out of “third wave” in Maharashtra, the State administration began to mobilise medicines and health equipment to be sent across to both rural and urban areas. This followed a directive it received from the Chief Minister himself.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the State Task Force warned the Chief Minister that the cases would double in the coming weeks after a possible advent of third wave in the State. “Uncontrolled crowds and the refusal by the people to follow Covid-19 norms, coupled with the advent of Delta plus variant might trigger a third wave of pandemic in the State,” a senior official who briefed the chief minister about a possible third wave said.
The task force told the CM that the lower middle class of people who were not affected by the first and second waves of Covid-19 would be hit by the third wave of the pandemic. It advised the Uddhav to increase testing, strengthen infrastructure and increase vaccination.
Quantifying the impact of the impact of the “third wave”, the task force officials told the CM that the State would have to contend with 8 lakh “active” cases, out of which 10 per cent would be children. There were as many as 19 lakh Covid patients in the State during the first wave, while the number of patients jumped to 40 lakh during the second wave. The number of patients would double during the third wave.
“The children would not be majorly affected by the third wave. The children make up for more than 3.5 per cent of the patient pool in the State,” a senior official said.
The impending Covid-19 “third wave” should seen in the context of the five-level relaxation plan announced by the state government and its decision to relax restrictions in 18 tom 36 districts of the State.
On June 5, the Government had announced that it would implement the un-lock plan in 18 districts — Aurangabad, Bhandara, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Dhule, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Jalgaon, Jalna, Latur, Nagpur, Nanded, Nashik, Parbhani, Thane, Washim, Wardha and Yavatmal — from June 7..
Among other things, the Chief Minister directed the doctors and the task force officials present at Wednesday’s meeting to increase the availability of medicine and health equipment in both urban areas in the state. “The vaccination will definitely play an important role. But at the same time our priority should be ensure that the Covid-19 norms like Covid-19 norms like social distancing are followed and there would not be over-crowding at public places. We need to increase the RT-PCR tests, procure more of PPE kits and we should be ready with adequate medicines, beds, Oxygen and other medical facilities at our hospitals,” Uddhav said at the meeting.
The Chief Minister said that the vaccination should be pursued aggressively. He said that since the country would be receiving 42 crore vaccine doses by August-September 2021, the state would also be benefitted by the arrival of new vaccine stocks.
