After imposing night curfew and weekend lockdown, the Maharashtra Government is all set to implement new additional restrictions in the State.
Starting from the 22nd of April, the new restrictions would come in effect from 8:00 P.M, and would continue till 7:00 A.M., of the 1st of May. The decision was taken by Uddhav Thackeray, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, on the 21st of April.
As part of the restrictions, no travel, except for essential services, medical reasons or vaccination, would be allowed. Those allowed to travel will have to quarantine themselves at home for 14 days after they reach their destination. Essential services providers would be allowed to function from office with 15 % staff. Government offices would also function with 15 % staff.
In additional restrictions, local trains have also been restrictedAnd stricter restrictions have been imposed on inter district and city travel. A maximum of 25 guests are allowed to attend weddings and the function must be wrapped up within two hours.
Anyone found violating the rule would have to pay a fine of Rs. 50,000.
According to State health minister Rajesh Tope, everything except public transport and essential commodities would remain shut down. Rajesh Tope said, “Though we are not calling it lockdown, it is a ‘break-the-chain’ initiative amid the rising Covid-19 cases in the state. We have been utilising 80-90% of our facilities in the health infrastructure, including beds, oxygen, manpower and it cannot bear more load…all the cabinet ministers insisted on complete lockdown. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will announce it soon.”
Despite a week’s restrictions and curfew, the State showed no stability in COVID-19 prevention, following which stricter restrictions were required.
Meanwhile, Mumbai and other regions of Maharashtra are witnessing shortage of oxygen, important drugs for COVID-19 patients and other important equipment to tackle the situation. In the past few weeks, Maharashtra added 3,23,199 infections and 2,539 deaths.
According to the prepared data, Mumbai alone would have more than 1.40 lakh active cases till the 2nd of May, if the cases continue to rise like this. In addition, Mumbai will have a shortfall of over 6,000 oxygen beds, 1500 ICU beds and 121 ventilator beds.
Cities like Nagpur and Pune have also been projected to have a massive shortage of beds.
Stay tuned for further updates.
