‘Be careful or will have to impose another lockdown’

MUMBAI: As daily cases in Maharashtra are declining, albeit at a very slow pace, restaurants and malls have reopened in the entire state from Sunday. Local train services also resumed in Mumbai and surrounding cities. Chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday urged citizens to take all sorts of precautions to prevent further spread of Covid-19. He said the government was easing down restrictions but people need to be careful, else the government will have to impose a lockdown once again. On Sunday, Maharashtra recorded 4,797 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the count to 6,392,660. The tally of active cases stands at 64,219 as 3,710 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours.

The state saw 130 casualties with the highest deaths recorded in Kolhapur at 32. Of them, 14 were found in the district and the remaining in the city. It was followed by Satara with 31 fatalities. “We are giving a lot of relaxation in restrictions, but the danger is yet to be over. Some countries have again started facing a spike in cases. We all need to be very cautious so that we don’t have to face a similar situation again. Last and this year we faced the havoc of Covid. Cases in the state are under control but we have to take a lot of precautions. Considering the oxygen demand and supply and if daily cases rise again, we will have no option but to impose lockdown restrictions once again. Hence, Covid protocols have to be strictly followed,” Thackeray said in his address at a flag hoisting ceremony on the 75th Independence

Day.

He also said that the government wants to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic in the next year. “We will become free from Covid-19 pandemic in the next one year and celebrate the next Independence Day in a Covid-free environment,” Thackeray said. On Sunday, Mumbai clocked 262 new cases, taking the count to 739,331 till date. It also recorded four fatalities, pushing toll to 15,981.

In the past 24 hours, the state tested 199,963 samples and had a positivity rate of 2.39%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 12.54%, according to the data issued by the state health department.

The state has administered 203,253 vaccine doses on Sunday, according to the data available on Co-win portal, pushing the total count to 49,414,314 doses so far.