India / Will decide on lockdown after reviewing situation for 8-10 days: Maha Dy CM

Zoom News : Nov 22, 2020, 08:17 PM
New Delhi: Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar on Sunday hinted at a Covid-induced lockdown in the coming days in the state owing to huge crowds witnessed during the recently concluded festival period.

"There were huge crowds during Diwali period. Even at the time of Ganesha Chaturthi, we saw crowds. We are speaking to relevant departments. We'll review the situation for next 8-10 days and then a decision will be taken about the lockdown," said Pawar in Pune.

"Now there are predictions that second wave may come. Government has made a lot of regulations to start schools, which includes different ways on how they should be sanitized," he further said.

The state government has allowed reopening of schools for classes 9 to 12 from tomorrow depending on the Covid-19 situation in local areas.

Reopening of schools has been postponed in Pimpri Chinchwad till 30 November in view of Covid-19 situation. "A total of 17 teachers and teaching staff have tested Covid positive out of 5,671 samples tested in the rural area of Pune. More teachers & teaching staff will be tested," said Pune Zila Parishad on Sunday.

Pawar's statement comes at a time when speculations are gathering steam about the state considering a possible suspension of train and flight operations to and from Delhi in view of the rising coronavirus cases in the national capital.

"Various measures are being discussed in order to curb the virus spread in the state, and suspension of train and flight operations to and from Delhi is one of them," Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar told PTI.

"However, no decision has been taken so far on this," he added.

Maharashtra on Saturday reported 5,760 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the count of infections to 17,74,455, a health department official said.

With 62 people succumbing to the infection, the cumulative toll reached 46,573, he said.

A total of 4,088 patients were discharged in the day, raising the tally of recoveries to 16,47,004, the official said, adding that the state is now left with 79,873 active cases.

Mumbai city reported 1,093 fresh cases, pushing the cumulative count to 2,74,579 while the number of fatalities mounted by 17 to 10,656.

The state has so far conducted 1,01,20,470 tests.

The Mumbai division, which consists of Mumbai city and satellite towns, reported 1,977 new cases, raising the total count to 6,15,499. A total of 18,485 people have died so far in the region, the official said.

The number of cases in the Pune division stood at 4,44,534 and deaths at 10,493, he said.

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