Lockdown in Maharashtra? Cabinet meet today, decision about stricter Covid-19 curbs likely

A meeting of the cabinet in Maharashtra will be held later on Sunday amid calls for stricter restrictions across the state, which has seen a massive jump in daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The meeting will come days after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray warned of a lockdown and said if Covid-19 cases continue to rise, the state's health infrastructure would be affected severely. According to news agency ANI, the Maharashtra cabinet meeting is scheduled to be held at 3pm virtually.

Maha CM Uddhav warns of lockdown:

In a public address streamed live on social media, Thackeray warned that if the number of cases continued to rise at the current rate, the state would fall short of medical personnel even if health infrastructure could be expanded.

He said that restrictions have to be imposed to prevent crowding. He attacked political opponents for threatening protests against lockdown, saying they should be helping the administration tackle the crisis instead. If situation gets worse: "Today, I am warning about complete lockdown but not announcing it. I will speak to experts and political leaders in the next two days. If there is no other option to a lockdown, we will have to accept it," Thackeray said.

He added that the question before the government was how to break the chain of infection. While talking about the measures taken in the US and UK, Thackeray also said that France, Belgium, Ireland and others have gone for lockdown to break the chain.

The condition of Maharashtra is most worrying. Corona infection is spreading rapidly in the state. Meanwhile, there is a shortage of oxygen in the hospitals of the state. Also, the price of oxygen cylinder is also increasing.

The corona virus infection's positivity rate in the last days of March in the district was 43.8 percent. On Friday and Saturday, a total of 2214 oxygen beds were filled in the hospitals in the district. A total of 15,484 covid cases have been reported in the city. Of these, 4600 patients are in home isolation.

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