After 10 Omicron cases in Maharashtra, Aaditya Thackeray offers suggestions to Centre

Aaditya Thackeray wrote to Mansukh Mandaviya with “a few suggestions that have come from various interactions with doctors and those closely observing the covid situation closely".

A day after Maharashtra reported two new cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, minister Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday offered three suggestions to the Centre, including allowing booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccine and reducing the gap between doses.

Aaditya Thackeray wrote to Mandaviya after two people were found infected with the Omicron variant in Mumbai.  (HT FIle Photo)

Aaditya Thackeray said in a tweet he wrote to Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya with “a few suggestions that have come from various interactions with doctors and those closely observing the covid situation closely, so that we can protect our citizens in the light of newly emerging variants.”

His letter also came a day after the Maharashtra Covid task force suggested restrictions on travellers and schools and public places must continue until more is known about Omicron.

“To allow all those front-line workers and health care workers, who have received both their doses early in the year, a third shot at their studied desire,” Thackeray said in his letter.

“In my conversations with various doctors, it seems that it may be ok to reduce the minimum age of vaccination to 15. This will enable us to cover the secondary schools and the junior colleges with vaccine protection,” he also wrote.

"If the gap between two doses is reduced to four weeks, just like for those applying to work or study abroad, the city will cover 100% of its population with the second dose by mid-January 2022, without asking for more vaccines or altering its delivery schedule," Thackeray also said.

On Monday, authorities said two people were found infected with the Omicron variant in Mumbai and neither had any symptoms of the disease, taking the number of cases of such infections to 10 in Maharashtra and 23 across India.

Officials said a 37-year-old man, who arrived in Mumbai from South Africa, and his 36-year-old friend, who landed in the city from the US, tested positive for the variant in Mumbai. According to Maharashtra government officials, both the patients were vaccinated with Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The first two cases of Omicron were reported from Karnataka’s Bengaluru last week. So far, Omicron cases have been reported from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi.