The Maharashtra Cabinet on Thursday decided to remove all Covid-19 protocols from the state in the wake of the declining virus graph.

The removal of Covid restrictions in the state will continue. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said, “Let’s usher in the new year (Gudi Padwa) with this big decision.” This means that wearing masks will continue until a more effective and safe way to prevent coronavirus is found.

Cabinet Minister Jitendra Awhad took to Twitter to announce the state government’s decision.

Maharashtra had last Saturday reported 138 new Covid-19 cases but no pandemic-related death, the state health department had said. Last Friday, the state had recorded 275 cases and two deaths. The caseload in the state rose to 78,73,369 at the time, while the death toll remained unchanged at 1,47,779.

Mumbai on Wednesday clocked 38 new cases of coronavirus, but no fresh death linked to the infection was registered for the third day in a row. With this, the tally of overall coronavirus infections rose to 10,57,953. However, there were no new deaths related to coronavirus infections reported for the third day in a row – this is an indication that people are still avoiding being infected with it.

Mumbai had recorded the highest-ever 20,971 cases during the third coronavirus wave – which started from December 21, 2021 – on January 7.

News18 had earlier reported that there is no critical patient of coronavirus admitted anywhere in Mumbai, which had reported the first case of Covid-19 infection in March 2020. In the second wave of the pandemic, the number of critical patients in Mumbai had gone up to 1,700. In the third wave, this number was around 1,500 but now (after two years), after two years and eight months since onset of this pandemic – there are still no critical patients admitted to any hospital or clinic related to Covid-19?