NEWS

Amid the rising Omicron cases, Maharashtra Additional Chief Health Secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas on Friday (December 31) predicted that the state may report a total of two lakh active COVID-19 cases by the third week of January.

Speaking to media, Dr Pradeep Vyas said, "Based on the current trend of rising COVID cases in the state, it is expected that we will have about two lakh active cases by the third week of January 2022.

Separate instructions are issued for managing these numbers, in case some of them need hospitalization.

A minister in Maharashtra said on Friday that the stage of imposing a fresh lockdown in the state is approaching, but chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will take a final call on it. The remarks by state minister Vijay Wadettiwar came as Maharashtra recorded a huge spike in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, with 8,067 people testing positive for the infection.

“The stage of lockdown is approaching. But the chief minister will take a decision on when to impose it,” Wadettiwar, the minister for disaster management, told reporters.

Decision on restrictions on travel and colleges will be taken together, he added.

In a fresh blow to Samajwadi Party, founding member and MLC from Varanasi Shatrudh Prakash defected to BJP on Friday. Prakash’s tenure in UP’s upper house was due to end on July 6, 2022. Prakash, who joined the saffron outfit in the presence of UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh at the party headquarters, said his politics had been anti-Congress from the beginning. He also lauded the Yogi Adityanath government for stamping out organised crime and criminals in east UP.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused BJP on Friday of political vendetta ahead of the UP assembly elections, saying his party’s functionaries were targeted with tax raids because Samajwadi Vijay Yatra rallies were drawing huge crowds, while BJP’s Rath Yatra has fewer people than “a roadside stall selling chowmein”.

“Look at the crowds that are coming for their rath yatra. One can see more people standing around a roadside stall selling chowmein,” he said. “This has rattled BJP.” Calling the income tax department and enforcement directorate coalition partners of BJP, he said searches like the one at the residence of SP MLC and perfume trader Pushparaj Jain, who launched the Samajwadi Perfume, will increase as the elections draw nearer.