Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar on Friday said there was no discussion on the state going mask-free in the cabinet meeting and stressed that everyone should wear masks until the coronavirus pandemic is over. “In any meeting of the cabinet, there has been no discussion regarding making Maharashtra mask free. Have to wear a mask until the corona is over,” he told ANI.
Earlier, media reports quoted state health minister Rajesh Tope as saying that the state government has sought information from the central and state Covid-19 task forces on measures to be adopted to make the state mask-free at the earliest.
Tope, in Kohlapur, cited several other countries, including the United Kingdom, that have now allowed their citizens to stop wearing masks. “In the recent cabinet meeting, we discussed making the state mask-free. Several countries such as the UK have finally asked their citizens to stop wearing masks. We have requested the central and the state task forces to provide us with information on how they achieved it,” he said.
The state health minister, however, said the mask rule will continue for some time owing to Maharashtra’s “huge” demography.
Maharashtra on Thursday reported 6,248 new COVID-19 cases, 894 less than the day ago, which took the caseload to 78,29,633, the health department said. The virus claimed the lives of 45 persons during the day, as against 92 on Wednesday. With this, the death toll rose to 1,43,292, it said.
In the 13 months since Covid-19 vaccination drive began in Mumbai, 1.82 lakh people who received either one or two doses suffered “breakthrough” infection, as per BMC data. A “breakthrough” infection is used when a person gets infected by a virus despite being vaccinated against it. Studies from around the world have shown that vaccination protects against severe infections.
Of the 1.82 lakh persons in Mumbai who got Covid after being vaccinated, 23,562 got the infection after taking the first shot. The remaining 1.59 lakh got infected after taking both doses, a Times of India report said referring to BMC data computed up to February 7.
BMC additional commissioner Suresh Kakani, however, said the data needs to be interpreted in a positive manner. “Instead of looking at the absolute number of breakthrough infections, we need to understand that only 0.22% (12,562) of the 1.05 crore people who took the first Covid shot got infected,” he was quoted as Times of India as saying.
Kakani added that while 87.7 lakh people in Mumbai have taken two shots of the Covid vaccine, only 1.81% (1.59 lakh) got breakthrough infection. “The majority of those vaccinated were either not affected or had such a mild infection they didn’t have any symptoms,” he said.
As per BMC data, persons in the 18-44 age group suffered the most breakthrough infections. Of the 53.4 lakh people in the 18-44 age group in Mumbai who took two doses, about 1.51% of them – 80,415 – got Covid.
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