Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad Lockdown news: 10-day lockdown to be imposed to arrest spike in Coronavirus cases

There was no formal notification from the state government regarding this lockdown, and industry representatives are awaiting clarity on whether factories would be allowed to operate or be asked to shut down. (File image)

Pune Lockdown: A 10-day lockdwon will be implemented in Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and rural areas adjoining the Pune municipal limits from July 13 amid the rising cases of coronavirus infections in the region.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister and guardian minister of Pune Ajit Pawar announced this on Friday after a meeting with the local administrative officials in Pune.

Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune district collector Naval Kishore Ram, Pune municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioner Shravan Hardikar were present in the meeting.

There was no formal notification from the state government regarding this lockdown, and industry representatives are awaiting clarity on whether factories would be allowed to operate or be asked to shut down.

Pawar said that there was a surge in cases in Pune and PCMC areas, and while it would disrupt people’s life, they had no option other than enforcing a lockdown to break the chain of infection and bring down the mortality rate.

Pawar said people will have two days to stock up supplies and prepare for this round of lockdown. The finer details of what will be permitted and the extent of the lockdown will be decided by the two municipal commissioners and the police commissioners in two days, Pawar said.

This would depend on the number of positive cases in the next two days and the availability of hospital beds, beds with oxygen and ICU beds with ventilators. Coronavirus has spread across the city and there is a sharp spike in infections in the last few days, Pawar said.

Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad had been following a microcontainment strategy with containment zones in limited areas, but now these cases have gone beyond the containment zones, and patients were struggling to find hospital beds.

Pune district has seen 34,582 cases with 989 deaths till Friday. The district added 1,803 fresh cases on Thursday. Around 25,000 cases were in Pune city areas. The number of Covid positive cases in the PCMC areas was at 6,282 and could go up to 10,000 before end of this month, Hardikar said.

PCMC commissioner Hardikar has already indicated that he will impose strict lockdwon. Orders with details will be issued soon.

The government had a discussion with private hospitals to augment bed capacity to deal with the surging cases and private hospitals had committed additional 800 beds. Pawar also blamed people for not following safety instructions regarding mask usage and social distancing.