After the Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced a slew of COVID-19 relaxations, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope has asked the citizens to remain cautious. He said the government will be forced to impose a complete lockdown again if the usage of oxygen crosses 700 MT per day.
"The moment the daily need for oxygen comes up to 700 metric tonnes in the state, a full lockdown will be imposed, in the third wave. As other states also may need oxygen, it's not clear if we can get what we need from the Centre," Tope said.
Meanwhile, 11 districts in the state continue to report high growth rate in COVID-19 patients against the weekly average of 0.10%. However, the number of districts with a high positivity rate has been reduced to 7 compared with 10 in last week.
The Public Health Department in its presentation to the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday has listed 11 districts with high growth rate in COVID-19 patients. These districts included Sangli (0.39%), Satara (0.32%), Solapur (0.31%), Kolhapur (0.27%), Ahmednagar (0.26%), Ratnagiri (0.25%), Sindhudurg (0.23%), Beed (0.19%), Amravati 90.17%), Raigad (0.11%) and Osmanabad (0.11%).
Nandurbar, Dhule, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia and Akola have reported 0% growth in COVID-19 patients.
On the other hand, the districts with high positivity rate comprised Satara (6.63%), Sangli (6.12%), Pune (5.81%), Ahmednagar (5.27%), Beed (4.24%), Sindhudurg (4.20%) and Solapur (3.40%) against the weekly average of 3.05%. Interestingly, Ratnagiri and Kolhapur districts have shown improvement in the positivity rate during this week against last week. The positivity rate in Ratnagiri is reported at 3.01% against 3.73% and Kolhapur 2.84% against 6.01%.
Meanwhile, as per the new guidelines, restaurants have been allowed to operate till 10 pm with 50% capacity. Besides, shopping malls have been also been permitted to remain open till 10 pm but only for those people who are fully vaccinated, i.e, have taken both the doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Check out the new guidelines below:
1. August 15 onwards local trains will be allowed for fully vaccinated citizens. Rs 500 fine will be imposed and action will be taken if found travelling without taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
2. Restaurants allowed to operate till 10 pm with 50% capacity. Staff needs to be fully vaccinated social distancing needs to be maintained in seating arrangements.
3. A maximum of 200 people have been allowed to attend marriages. Enclosed halls have been allowed to operate with 50% capacity.
4. Government offices will run with full capacity, while private offices nhave been allowed to work in staggered shifts for 24 hours.
5. All types of shops (essential / non-essential) have allowed to stay open till 10 pm.
6. No relaxations till further orders for cinema halls and multiplexs, drama halls, places of religious worship no relaxations till further orders
7. Shopping malls have been allowed to remain open till 10 pm but only for those who are fully vaccinated.
