Pune: With people continuing to venture and roam around without any reason, the senior Ministers from Maharashtra government on Monday hinted that state might undergo under strict lockdown. Also, the timings of grocery shops may restrict 7 am to 11 am. Some Ministers also indicated that indicating that a decision on imposing a complete lockdown may be taken by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in the next two days.
However, the government has not issued any official order yet. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will chair a cabinet meeting to review the implementation of 'Break the Chain’s' lockdown style curfew enforced from April 14 and the present scenario of the COVID-19 crisis.
The decision about limiting grocery shop timings was proposed in a meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday. “We need to avert people from travelling around without any reason. For that, a decision has been taken to permit grocery shops to remain open for only four hours so that people do not travel throughout the day claiming to buy grocery,” Health Minister Rajesh Tope told mediapersons after the meeting.
He also informed that the government may take more such decisions on restricting timings of essential services to break the chain of the virus. “Restrictions must be made stricter till April 30 in the wake of crowding. Instructions have also been given to the police to stop people moving around without any reason and get rid of needless crowding,” Tope said.
Also, Transport Minister Anil Parab and Social Welfare Minister Vijay Wadettiwar said that that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is in talks with officials and other stakeholders on the current situation of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, after days of recording spike in daily COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra on Monday saw a dip in its tally of new cases. The state on Monday reported 58,924 fresh cases.
For the last few days, the state's single-day total of COVID-19 cases was hovering above the 60,000-mark daily. With 58,000 cases on Monday, state's total caseload has now gone to 38,98,262. The test positivity rate in the state in last 24 hours stood at 16.19 per cent.
