Amid a huge surge in COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said the decision to impose a lockdown across the state is not easy. He also said that a decision will soon be taken after reviewing the situation. Thackeray further said a second lockdown could be avoided only if citizens in the state follow COVID-19 norms.
"The option of imposing a lockdown cannot be easily adopted but we will have to take a firm decision soon. We will review the situation within the next few days and take a decision,” Thackeray said. "We still appeal to people to adhere to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour to avoid the second lockdown,” he added.
Besides, a partial lockdown has been announced in Nashik, Malegaon, and Aurangabad amid rising COVID-19 cases. The Nashik and Aurangabad District Collectors in separate orders issued on Tuesday said that schools, colleges, classes will be completely closed till further orders. In Jalgaon, the district administration has announced a three-day Janata curfew.
In Mumbai, BMC officials said that there is no immediate need to impose a lockdown in the city despite the rising COVID-19 cases. According to civic officials, the surge in cases is a result of an increase in daily testing. Meanwhile, Guardian Minister Aslam Shaikh said that if COVID-19 cases don't reduce in Mumbai, the administration will have to consider imposing a partial lockdown.
On Wednesday, 13,659 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Maharashtra. This is for the first time this year that over 13,000 cases have been recorded in the state in a single day. The previous highest single-day surge this year was 11,141 on Sunday, March 7.
