No respite for Mumbai, Pune from lockdown as Covid-19 cases surge

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 1, 2020

Mumbai, Pune and several other parts of Maharashtra where the number of Covid-19 cases have been increasing will continue to be under lockdown after May 3, according to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

”People are asking the question: what after May 3? I want to make it clear that we cannot lift the lockdown in red zones like the Mumbai-Pune belt, Kalyan-Dombivlie parts of Nagpur and other areas in the state,” Thackeray said in an online statement today.

Thackeray added that the lockdown would be lifted in Maharashtra in a zone-wise manner. “Lockdown will be lifted step-by-step and we will take abundant precautions while doing so,” Thackeray said.

While the state government has indicated that economic activities will resume in the areas labelled green zones, Thackeray sounded a note of warning. “Once restrictions are relaxed in some areas, please do not start crowding. Otherwise the rules will have to be made stricter,” Thackeray added.

The Chief Minister added that the government aimed to detect cases of people suffering from Covid-19 virus at an early stage. “Babies who are a few days old and 83-year-old people have recovered from the coronavirus and have gone home. Even those who were on ventilators have also recovered. The illness is curable if detected early. Please do not panic,” Thackeray said in his address.

So more than 10,000 cases of people testing positive for the virus have been reported from Maharashtra, with most of them from Mumbai, Pune and surrounding areas. The death toll has crossed 400, according to information from the state government.

Most of the medium- and small-scale industries in Maharashtra are concentrated in the Mumbai-Pune, Kalyan-Dombivli and Aurangabad areas from where majority of the Covid-19 cases in the state have been reported. All these areas are home to a vast slum population with people living in very congested conditions.