Maharashtra Unlock: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Government on Wednesday allowed the operations of hotels and restaurants till 10 pm in the state. As of now hotels and restaurants were allowed to operate till 4 pm only. According to the order released by the government, the detailed SOPs will be released shortly.
Earlier, the Maharashtra Government also has decided to allow more students to visit schools for offline classes. School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad on Tuesday said students of Classes 5 to 12 will be allowed to attend classes in rural areas from August 17 and in urban areas Classes 8 to 12 students will be allowed to visit schools. Maharashtra schools will reopen in areas where the coronavirus cases are under control.
On Monday, in the meeting between chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Maharashtra Covid-19 task force, officials discussed the possibility of granting further restrictions in the state. Besides Thackeray, the meeting was also attended by state chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, Covid-19 task force head Dr Sanjay Oak and other members.
“The state government is now preparing new guidelines after receiving various suggestions and instructions from doctors, experts and government departments. The focus of the discussion was basically on how to introduce further relaxations while observing precautions,” said a government official, who attended the meeting.
The task force also discussed issues related to tackling of the possible third wave of the pandemic, requirement of medical oxygen, increasing the pace of vaccination, effective implementation of tracing and tracking, among others, he said.