Decision on lockdown not easy, says CM Uddhav Thackeray

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that the state government cannot easily adopt the decision to impose a lockdown in the state. He also said that a decision will be taken after reviewing the situation.

“The option of imposing a lockdown cannot be easily adopted but we will have to take a firm decision soon. We will review the situation within the next few days and take a decision,” Thackeray said. “We still appeal to people to adhere to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour to avoid the second lockdown,” he added.

In Mumbai, BMC officials said that there is no immediate need to impose a lockdown in the city despite the rising COVID-19 cases. According to civic officials, the surge in cases is a result of an increase in daily testing.

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported highest spike of the year after reporting more than 13,000 cases in the last 24 hours. As per updates from the state’s health department, the state has recorded 13,659 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s caseload to 22,52,057. With 54 fatalities, the death toll stood at 52,610. Notably, the state had on October 8 last year reported 13,395 cases after which the number of daily cases had declined.

Maharashtra has been recording more than 8,000 since the last week. Nagpur, Pune and Thane have an active caseload of more than 10,000 since last week as well. Thane, Jalgaon and Amravati have imposed lockdowns in hotspots to curb the spread of cases.