Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol on Friday wrote to Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope and demanded relaxation in restrictions for shop timings in the city.
Mohol has demanded to further relax the restrictions in Pune and to allow the shops to function till at least 8 pm.
Presently, Pune has been kept in Level 3 and shops are allowed to open till 4 pm.
The Mayor wrote to the state Health Minister following a meeting with the traders who requested him to put a proposal demanding an extension.
Health Minister Tope was recently quoted by several regional media saying that if the city administrations send him a proposal with their demands, he will discuss the same with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and a decision regarding the same will be taken if the CM feels appropriate.
Maharashtra reported 5,539 new COVID-19 cases and 187 fresh deaths on Friday, taking the infection tally to 63,41,759 and the toll to 1,33,717, a health department official said.
The official said 5,859 patients were discharged from hospitals across the state in the last 24 hours, pushing the number of recoveries to 61,30,137 and leaving Maharashtra with 74,483 active cases.
According to the official, the state has 4,35,516 people in home quarantine and 2,837 in institutional quarantine.
Maharashtra's COVID-19 case recovery stands at 96.66 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.1 per cent, he said.
The cumulative number of coronavirus tests conducted in the state climbed to 4,91,72,531, of which 2,10,425 tests were done in the last 24 hours, the official said.
He said among the eight regions of Maharashtra, the Pune region reported the highest cases at 2,105, followed by 1,462 in the Kolhapur region.
Among other regions, the Mumbai region reported 769 cases, Nashik 787, Latur 292, Aurangabad 61, Akola 42 and the Nagpur region 21.
According to the official, among the 187 fatalities, the highest deaths at 71 were reported from the Aurangabad region, followed by 56 from the Pune region and 30 from the Kolhapur region.
The Mumbai region reported 11 fatalities, Nashik 13, Latur five while the Akola region reported one death. The Nagpur region did not report any fresh fatality, he said.
The official said Mumbai witnessed 307 new COVID-19 cases and eight deaths.
Coronavirus figures for Maharashtra are as follows: Total cases 63,41,759; new cases 5,539; total deaths 1,33,717; total recoveries 61,30,137; active cases 74,483; tests conducted so far 4,91,72,531.
