Crowd at Gateway of India (Express Photo By Ganesh Shirsekar)

The Maharashtra cabinet on Monday expressed concern over the increase in Covid-19 cases in the state and stressed the need to step up the pace of vaccination and effective measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including the new Omicron variant raises new concerns.

The number of active cases has increased by almost 50% in the past 20 days, the cabinet said during its meeting. As of December 26, the state had 9,813 active cases of infectious disease. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who virtually joined the meeting held at Vidhan Bhavan in south Mumbai, has requested a meeting of the state task force on COVID-19 in a day or two to review the current situation coronaviruses.

Mumbai reported 809 Covid-19 cases and three deaths on Monday. bringing the tally in the metropolis to 7 71 921 and the toll to 16 373, said an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The day’s addition was a drop from the 922 cases reported on Sunday, he said.

The number of recoveries rose to 7,48,199 after 335 people were released during the day, leaving Mumbai with 4,765 active cases, he said. With 43,383 samples examined in the past 24 hours, the number of tests in the country’s financial capital has risen to 1,3492,241, according to BMC data.