Mumbai Dec 27 PTI The Maharashtra cabinet on Monday expressed concern over the rising COVID-19 cases in the state and stressed on the need to expedite the pace of vaccination and effective steps to curb the spread of coronavirus whose new variant Omicron is causing fresh worriesThe number of active cases has increased by nearly 50 per cent in the last 20 days the cabinet was told at its meeting hereAs on December 26 the state had 9813 active cases of the infectious diseaseChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who virtually joined the meeting held in Vidhan Bhavan in south Mumbai asked for a meeting of state COVID-19 task force in a day or two to review the prevailing coronavirus situationA statement from the Chief Ministers Office CMO said Thackeray suggested strict vigilance and effective steps to curb the spread of the virusThe statement said the cabinet expressed concern over the rise in COVID-19 cases in the last few daysHealth secretary Pradeep Vyas made a presentation before the cabinet in which he said a further rise in the number of active cases is expected in January according to the statementThe need of the hour is to expedite the pace of vaccination the senior bureaucrat said adding a few days ago eight lakh vaccine doses were being administered to people in a day in the state but that number has now come down to 5 lakh shotsThe health secretary said on December 8 there were 6200 active cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra and currently their count has shot up to around 10000In the last 20 days the number of active cases has risen by nearly 50 per cent Also in the last six days the number of daily cases has seen a three-fold rise he saidThe states COVID-19 positivity rate is 106 per cent Vyas saidOn December 26 the state reported 1648 new casesThe statement said the Chief Minister at the meeting directed all guardian ministers to expedite vaccination in their respective districts PTI MR RSY RSY