Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar has hinted towards a lockdown in the city soon. She told CNN-News18 that an announcement to the effect may be made on Friday.
The city has reported a massive spike of 8,646 new Covid-19 cases within 24 hours, and 18 deaths. The numbers have pushed the total number of cases to 4,23,360 and the death toll to 11,704.
Sources in the Maharashtra government had on Wednesday told CNN-News18 that the state will not see a complete lockdown, but district-wise stringent restrictions and containment zones, the SOPs for which were likely to be made public by April 2.
State Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has asked officials to prepare fresh SOPs on further restrictions to be implemented amid a rise in Covid-19 cases, and deaths. While Thackeray had directed the administrative machinery to prepare for a complete lockdown, there has been a severe pushback from both the MVA allies – NCP and Congress. According to them, a complete lockdown would result in economic harm.
Meanwhile, associations related to cinema, retail, and shopping industries on Thursday urged Thackeray to not impose a lockdown in Maharashtra where Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
Multiplex Association of India (MAI), Retail Association of India (RAI), and Shopping Centres Association of India said they were following all the safety protocols of the government but a lockdown will hit the business, which was in the recovery process.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope recently said people should be ready for stringent measures in the coming days to curb the spread of COVID-19 and that imposing a lockdown is the last option for the state government.
Kamal Gianchandani, CEO PVR Pictures and president of MAI, said the cinema industry is mentally reconciled with the fact that they will have to “co-exist with the virus for some time”. “There’s a sensor deja vu for sure because we all have painful memories of the lockdown,” he said.
The state on Thursday reported 43,183 new COVID-19 cases, its highest one-day rise since the pandemic began, which pushed the caseload to 28,56,163, a health official said. The state reported 249 deaths during the day, another record since October last year, taking the fatality count to 54,898.
As many as 32,641 patients were discharged, the highest so far, taking the recovery count to 24,33,368. The number of active patients is 3,66,533 now.
Before this, the highest one-day spike was reported on March 28 (40,414). Out of the 249 deaths, 140 occurred in the last 48 hours and 109 in the last week, he said.
There are 19,09,498 people in home quarantine and 18,432 others in institutional quarantine. State capital Mumbai reported 8,646 new COVID-19 cases, which increased its caseload to 4,23,419. It also reported 18 deaths, which pushed its toll to 11,708.
Its neighbouring Thane city reported 1,465 new cases, while Navi Mumbai recorded 1,060 fresh cases, the official said. Pune city and neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad reported 4,200 and 2,058 new cases respectively.
Rest of the Pune district reported 1,767 cases. With this, there are 2,81,418 COVID-19 cases in Pune Municipal Corporation areas, 1,37,732 in Pimpri Chinchwad and 1,25,137 in the rest of the district, he said.
Nashik city recorded 1,781 cases taking its caseload to 1,18,790. Ahmednagar district reported 891 new cases, apart from city’s 388 COVID-19 cases.
In Marathwada region, Aurangabad city reported 943 new cases, while 662 fresh cases were found in Nanded city. Nagpur city reported 50 deaths during the day, the highest in the state. It took the death toll to 3,013. Its case count rose by 2,587 to 1,94,894.
As many as 1,83,198 coronavirus tests were carried out on Thursday, which pushed the overall test count to 1,99,75,341. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases: 28,56,163, new cases: 43,183, death toll: 54,898, discharged: 24,33,368, active cases: 3,66,533, people tested so far: 1,99,75,341.
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