Mumbai, Mar 19 (IANS): The Covid-19 situation is currently comfortable now in Maharashtra but it may change "dramatically" over the next few weeks amid the emergence of a new variant of the Coronavirus, a top health official warned here on Saturday.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Dr. Pradeep Vyas said that while almost all restrictions have been relaxed in the state, some new variants are suspected to be fuelling infections in Israel and other countries.

Simultaneously, Health Minister Rajesh Tope hinted at the possibility of a fourth wave of Covid, sparking fresh concerns in various quarters.

In a precautionary issued to all Collectors, Municipal Commissioners, Zilla Parishad CEOs and others, Vyas said that the state now has less than 2,000 'active cases' which is a good sign, but "we need to be alert".

He pointed out that Covid cases are now steadily rising in different parts of the world, including China and Europe with a weekly growth of 8-10 per cent and more than 11 million per week.

"Though at present we are quite comfortable with only around 2,000 'active' Covid cases, but situation may change dramatically over the next few weeks," Vyas said.

He reiterated the need to prevent crowding, wearing masks, alertness in identifying clusters of SARI and ILI cases and increasing their surveillance, besides to catching up on vaccination as the state is below the national average.

Dwelling on the current global scenario, Vyas said in the past 24 hours, some countries recorded the highest ever new Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago.

South Korea reported 621,000 new cases in a day, Germany 262,000 and UK 84,000 cases daily, and, in comparison, the state had recorded the highest figure of around 68,000 new cases in a day during the second wave (early-2021), indicating the extent of infections presently in different countries.