No hurry to lift lockdown entirely: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday indicated he is in no hurry to completely lift the lockdown.
While virtually interacting with state Covid task force members Dr Shashank Joshi and Dr Rahul Pandit, Thackeray pointed out that wherever there’s been a hurry to end the lockdown, it has had to be reimposed.
He also said that there is a misunderstanding that Covid only affects senior citizens and not children.
Don’t want 2nd wave due to excessive confidence: CM Uddhav Thackeray
Referring to news reports about 97,000 children getting infected with coronavirus after schools reopened in America, he said Covid affects everybody from a six-month-old child to people of any age. “It will not be proper for us to push them into this due to overconfidence,” Thackeray noted.
“We are in the first wave and I don’t want the second wave in Maharashtra under any circumstances. And the second wave comes when we pat our backs on how we controlled the coronavirus and become complacent,” he said.
Thackeray said he knew the poor were badly affected, but expressed fear that if students in schools get infected after they open or if an office is reopened and the virus spreads among employees, ending the lockdown that will then have to be imposed “will not be in our hands.” “We will gradually keep opening up as part of Mission Begin Again,” he said.
On the measures taken by the state government, Thackeray said that the state probably had the first task force in the country, and the task force was not restricted to Mumbai but has helped share the facilities and guidelines on treatment to doctors even in rural areas. Referring to the health issues faced by those who have recovered, Thackeray said there is a need to look at post-Covid care.
Thackeray also spoke on the need to have permanent large facilities like the Nesco grounds and said there is a need to create them across the state and also focus on research in the fields of immunology and virology. The CM also said that more research on plasma, which is more than a 100-year old therapy, is needed.