Mumbai: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday made a big announcement in regards to lifting the COVID lockdown from the state. As the second wave of Covid-19 recedes, the people of Maharashtra have been waiting with bated breath, expecting the Maharashtra government to ease the state-wide lockdown in a phased manner owing to the decline in Covid cases and positivity rate in the state. Earlier, the Maharashtra government extended the ongoing restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the state till June 1, 7 am. The lockdown imposed by the state government under the ‘break the chain’ initiative was supposed to end on May 15.
However, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said that the government has decided not to lift all COVID19 restrictions as 21 districts still have more than 10 percent positivity rate.” Relaxations could be given in the districts where cases are declining, guidelines will be issued in a few days,” the Minister further added.
As the second wave of Covid-19 recedes, it was earlier expected that the Maharashtra government would ease the state-wide lockdown in a phased manner owing to the decline in Covid cases and positivity rate in the state.
Health minister Rajesh Tope indicated the same earlier, saying, “Let’s review the preparations. If all matters are positive, then only the chief minister and deputy chief minister, in consultation with the experts of the task force, can decide on the relaxation of the restrictions to some extent. Don’t be under the illusion that restrictions will be completely removed.”
Maharashtra recorded 24,752 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the state’s infection tally to 56,50,907, while 453 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 91,341, the health department said. Out of the 453 deaths, 323 occurred in the last 48 hours and 130 during the the last week, it said.
The state also added another 539 deaths to the cumulative figure due to updating of fatality counts by various civic bodies and districts. Hence, the overall death toll went up by 992 compared to Tuesday, the department said.
After a gap of a couple of weeks, the state witnessed more new coronavirus cases than daily recoveries.
As many as 23,065 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the tally of recoveries to 52,41,833, the department said. Maharashtra’s active cases stood at 3,15,042, it said. The state’s COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 92.76 per cent, while the case fatality rate was 1.62 per cent, the department said.
As many as 2,83,394 people were tested for coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the number of samples examined so far in the state to 3,38,24,959, it said. Mumbai saw 1,352 new COVID-19 cases and 34 deaths, taking its infection tally to 7,00,340 and the death toll to 14,684, the department said.