Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has decided to impose stricter norms by reducing the five-level relaxation plan to three. The first two levels having maximum relaxations have been removed till further order, according to a notification issued by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte on Friday. Given that the virus causing Covid019 is undergoing mutations in various geographies, and that these mutations are displaying more transmissibility and potential reductions in monoclonal antibody response, a state-level trigger mandating all the administrative units, irrespective of values of the indices of weekly positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy percentage, to remain at a level not below 3 is to be in operation till withdrawn by specific order of the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA),” the notification issued by Kunte stated.

The decision has been taken considering emerging cases of Delta plus variant in the state, officials said.

The state task force and the ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) has directed the state not to let its guard down, following which it was decided to cut down the relaxations, said Aseem Gupta, secretary, relief and rehabilitation department. There won’t be any changes for Mumbai as the city already comes under the level-3 category of restrictions, the officials said.

“It simply means that of the five-level relaxation plan, we have removed the first two levels having maximum relaxations. It also means all the districts and cities will get maximum relaxations that are provided under the level 3 plan,” Gupta said. The state has found 21 cases of Delta plus variant covering six districts. Of them, nine cases are in Ratnagiri, seven in Jalgaon, two in Mumbai and one case each in Thane, Palghar and Sindhudurg.“Before the second wave hit the state, cases started rising in Amravati and then it spread across the state. This time we have decided to be more careful considering the Delta plus variant cases have been found in a few districts. We cannot be at peace when there is a threat of a possible third wave looming large,” the relief and rehabilitation secretary said.