COVID-19: No immediate lockdown in Maharashtra, clarifies Ajit Pawar

The Maharashtra government will not immediately impose a lockdown but further introduce additional restrictions to combat virus infection amid rising Covid cases in the state. Fresh guidelines on new curbs are likely to be issued. This was the outcome of the meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday morning at Mantralaya, attended by Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope and senior bureaucrats, to take stock of the situation.

Pawar thereafter briefed the CM about the meeting and left it to him to decide on the imposition of additional curbs to check the spread of the virus.

A senior bureaucrat told The Free Press Journal, “At today’s meeting it was decided that the government will introduce progressive restrictions, meaning when the cases shoot up rapidly, new curbs will come in. The public health department has estimated that Maharashtra will have 7 lakh cases by the end of January. Against this backdrop, it was discussed that the schools and colleges may be closed till February 15. Besides, there was a suggestion that restaurants, gyms, swimming pools and spas could be closed for a while. There was no final decision as CM will take a call in this regard.”

However, he said, the unanimous view was that fresh restrictions were required to curb the virus spread. Besides, the government was likely to reduce the attendance of staff in various departments to 50 per cent, on the lines of the Centre’s guidelines. The government is also expected to urge the private sector to encourage work from home to avoid crowding.

Further, Pawar also discussed at length with the Covid taskforce the use of medically appropriate masks, manpower issues with the health department, permissible medical system and quarantine norms. “It was also decided to step up contact tracing along with testing in a bid to control the number of cases. Covid Care Centres (CCCs), dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHCs) and dedicated Covid hospitals (DCHs) will be kept equipped to treat patients by providing them beds and medicines. Pawar has asked the health department to pay due attention to the smooth supply of medicines and also conduct planning for manpower requirement to treat the rising number of patients in the state,” said another bureaucrat.