Kolhapur: Even though the Maharashtra government has warned that lockdown will again be imposed if the people in the state violate guidelines, the Kolhapur Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI), the apex body of traders, urged the state government to allow them to operate all shops till 8 PM and cancel the weekend lockdown.
In this regard, delegation of the KCCI met district collector Rahul Rekhawar on Monday and urge the district administration to listen to their requests. The traders said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, during his visit to Kolhapur last week, had assured relaxations to the traders if the Covid positivity rate reduced further.
The urge from the traders came as the Covid positivity rate in Kolhapur district has reduced to 4%.
Speaking to Times of India, Sanjay Shete, president of KCCI, said that the trading from the entire district had come to a halt for over a week due to floods. “At the time of CM’s visit, we were assured that there will be relaxation in the Covid restrictions. Accordingly, we put forward the demand to relax the restrictions for business activities like allow shops to open till 8 pm and cancel the weekend lockdown,” he said.
On the other hand, Kolhapur district collector Rahul Rekhawar assured the traders to put the demands before the government at the earliest and appealed to the traders’ representatives to follow the Covid restriction.
Other traders threaten to go on strike: Apart from Kolhapur, the traders from other places such as Shahupuri and Laxmipuri threatened to go on strike if the restrictions are not relaxed as the earliest.
Saying that they were affected by the recent floods, the traders said putting up petitions to the government does not seem to work so taking to the streets is the only way to be heard.
Warning from Uddhav Thackeray: In the meantime, due to the possibility of a third wave of Covid, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has warned that a lockdown shall be imposed if the state witnesses a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. CM Thackeray said that the state has made preparations ahead of the third wave of coronavirus.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister said that the state now has 600 testing labs, the number of isolation beds increased to over 4.5 lakh, and there is an availability of 34,507 ICU beds and 1,10,683 oxygen beds.
Corona cases: Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 5,609 coronavirus positive cases and 137 fatalities, including the highest 46 in the Pune region, while 7,568 patients recovered. With the new additions, the tally of infections and the death toll in Maharashtra rose to 63,63,442 and 1,34,201, respectively, the official said. The number of recoveries has increased to 61,59,676, leaving the state with 66,123 active cases.
Dhule, Nandurbar, Washim, Wardha, Bhandara and Gondia districts, and Malegaon and Parbhani municipal corporations did not report any new COVID-19 case. At 782, Satara district reported the highest number of new infections in the state in the day.
Among the eight regions in Maharashtra, the Pune region reported the highest number of 2,330 cases, followed by 1,413 cases in the Kolhapur region.
Among the other regions, the Mumbai region reported 707 cases, Nashik region 683, Latur region 398, Aurangabad region 33, Akola region 31 and Nagpur region 14, the official said.
Of the 137 fatalities, the highest number of 46 deaths were reported from the Pune region, followed by 43 in the Kolhapur region. Mumbai region reported 19 deaths due to COVID-19, Nashik region 11, Aurangabad region eight, Latur region five, Akola region four and Nagpur region one, according to the official. Mumbai city saw 239 COVID-19 cases and five deaths. Pune city reported 247 infections and five fatalities.