Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday, February 17, asked people to strictly follow coronavirus-related protocols, else his government would be forced to impose another lockdown to contain the pandemic.
This statement comes after an hour long review meeting by the CM as Maharashtra continues to witness an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the last few days.
"It is up to the people of the state to decide if they want a lockdown or live freely with some restrictions. Wear face masks and avoid crowds or else (you) will need to go into a lockdown again," Thackeray said to reporters.
In the meeting, Chief Minister Thackeray instructed all district collectors, municipal commissioners, state Covid task force, health minister, police and senior health officials to make all Covid norms stringent, including limited gathering during marriages, fines for face mask violations, geo-mapping in rural areas to identify regions with high positivity rate, and sealing of buildings where a cluster of cases are found.
“People may have become complacent but the authorities should not (drop guard)," Thackeray said during a virtual review meeting.
This includes a temporary hold on permissions for rallies, processions, protests; guests in wedding ceremonies will be limited to 50.
"Over the past year, we have set rules [SOPs] for various sectors while fighting coronavirus. But, it is a serious issue if that is not implemented. Especially after so many days of stalled weddings, ceremonies, people's gatherings, parties and other social events are seen taking place without any rules. We have extended the times of restaurants and hotels but we do not see that the rules are being followed. Local administration teams should visit all such places and take immediate action," Uddhav Thackeray said.
Moreover, strict action should be taken to revoke licenses [of hall/banquet owners] where masks and other rules are not observed at weddings or other ceremonies, he added.
A day after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday, February 15, warned of taking some harsh decisions and asked people to be prepared, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had also warned to go on lockdown mode once again.
On Tuesday, February 16, Maharashtra recorded 3,663 new Covid-19 cases with 461 fresh cases in Mumbai. At least 39 deaths due to COVID-19 have taken the toll to 51,591 deaths. In Mumbai 11,425 deaths have been recorded so far.
Meanwhile, as per the latest health bulletin, on February 16, as many as 2,700 coronavirus patients were discharged, taking the tally of recovered people to 19,81,408. The recovery rate of the state stands at 95.66 per cent. At present 1,82,970 people are in home quarantine while 1,726 are in institutional quarantine.
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