Centre issues advisory as Maha sees 226 Covid cases

Doctors in Mumbai said while they are not seeing much of Covid-19 cases, with the rise in H3N2 cases and other flu cases, people should continue to follow Covid appropriate behaviour like following hand hygiene, cough hygiene, wearing masks in crowded places etc

Mumbai: The Centre on Thursday issued an advisory to the Maharashtra health department after the state reported an increase in weekly Covid-19 cases and positivity rate.

Mumbai, India - April 01, 2022: With the State government lifting all Covid-19 restrictions, commuters seen without masks on a crowded railway bridge at Dadar staion, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, April 01, 2022. (Photo by Satish Bate/Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

On March 16, the state saw 226 new cases of Coronavirus out of which 35 were from Mumbai. The last time state saw 200 plus Covid cases was in November last year. The active tally of the state has also crossed 900-mark. No fresh death linked to the infection was recorded, however, the Centre wants state to follow a four-fold strategy, i.e., test-track-treat-vaccination and monitor new and emerging clusters of new Covid-19 cases.

In its letter to Sanjay Khandare, health secretary, the department of health and family welfare stated that Maharashtra’s positivity rate (1.92%) is higher than the country’s positivity rate (0.61%).

“We are following advisories issued by the ministry, which is a four-fold strategy, i.e., test-track-treat-vaccination,” said a state health officer. Maharashtra has reported an increase in weekly cases from 355 in the week ending March 8 to 668 in the week ending March 15. Centre has advised the state to examine the Covid-19 situation at the micro-level (district & sub-district). The Centre has also asked the state to conduct adequate, proactive testing. “We are conducting genome sequencing to keep a track of the Covid-19 variants. Our district health officers are monitoring Covid-19 new clusters,” said the officer. The officer said they have also asked the district health officers to monitor influenza-like illness (ILI) and SARI cases and test for Covid-19. “If positive, the sample will be sent for genome sequencing. We are continuing to do genome sequencing of international passengers testing positive for Covid-19,” he said.

Doctors in Mumbai said while they are not seeing much of Covid-19 cases, with the rise in H3N2 cases and other flu cases, people should continue to follow Covid appropriate behaviour like following hand hygiene, cough hygiene, wearing masks in crowded places etc. “The symptoms of Covid-19 and influenza are very similar and so are the precautionary measures. The vulnerable population like immunocompromised citizens and senior citizens should wear a mask in crowded places and in the s that is poorly ventilated,” said Dr Shalmali Inamdar, infectious disease expert at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital-Andheri. She added, “Most of the patients we are seeing in OPD are H3N2. There are few Covid-19 cases.”

Vasant Nagvekar, infectious disease expert and state Covid-19 task force member said, “The dominant virus circulating in the city is H3N2 followed by adenovirus and rhinovirus. We are seeing occasional cases of Covid. Whatever cases seen of Covid have been all self-limiting. The majority of the viral illnesses have been self-limiting with few of them having a severe course.

Because of better diagnostics in the last few years, we have been able to diagnose these few viruses. Oseltamivir medicine is also working well to treat H3N2.