A day after the opposition held a video conference convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised the Maharashtra Bachao Aandolan, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar to review the coronavirus pandemic, government’s containment strategy and situation on the ground, especially after certain curbs were relaxed in lockdown 4.0. It was decided that Pawar as well as Thackeray will again be communicating with Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to send more Shramik Trains for the transportation of migrants to their respective home states.
Besides, Thackeray will send a fresh appeal to the Centre to commence suburban railway services for the staff from the essential services during lockdown 4.0. Thackeray insisted that the lockdown norms need to be strictly implemented in Greater Mumbai, Pune, Malegaon, Nagpur, Jalgaon and Aurangabad, where the cases are rising. Thackeray informed that the doubling rate of COVID-19 patients in Greater Mumbai has slowed down to 14 days.
The meeting was attended by Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta and BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Chahal.
Chahal in his presentation told that BMC’s aggressive testing drive is yielding results, as more than 10,890 tests per million population are being done, which is higher than any other city or state in the country. He informed that 298 COVID-19 care centres with a capacity of 32,700 beds have been set up to house high-risk contacts of patients from slums who cannot avail home quarantine. So far, more than 42,500 people were housed and 24,800 were discharged after completing their quarantine period.
