Mumbai: Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray hinted that Maharashtra will move slowly for the resumption of remaining sectors in Maharashtra.

“Though the central government has relaxed number of restrictions, such as reopening of theatres and other sectors, Maharashtra will not open everything immediately and will go slowly,” Uddhav Thackeray hinted on Thursday.

Chief Minister Thackeray said, "If we think that we have significantly reduced the number of patients because of herd immunity, then it should be noted that there is the second wave of infection in Europe even after group immunity. In addition to COVID-19 which originated from China, there are three more strains of the virus, in Brazil, Africa and the UK, thus we need to be more alert and vigilant to prevent it from spreading.”

“It is mandatory to follow all COVID-19 restrictions. Even if we have started the vaccination drive one must stay alert and follow all rules to curtail the further spread of COVID-19,” he added.

Dr Pradip Vyas, Health Secretary, meanwhile stated that Maharashtra’s mortality rate was 2.26 per cent in November while it came down to 1.96 per cent in December and further declined to 1.63 per cent in January. Although the graph is of COVID-19 is flattening its curve, districts such as Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola, Bhandara, Nandurbar, Wardha, Ratnagiri, Gadchiroli, Nanded have the highest rate of weekly cases of COVID-19 as a number of test conducted remains low.