The weekend lockdown to combat the aggressive surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra began at 8pm on Friday. According to existing plans, the lockdown will continue until 7am on Monday.
The Times of India reported, "Only essential services such as medical, grocery, fruits, milk shops will be allowed to remain open. While movie and drama theatres will close down... film and television shootings will continue if there is no crowding. Transportation services including buses, trains and taxis will also be allowed to function. The government offices will operate with 50% capacity and industries will continue to operate without any restrictions."
However, at least two ministers in the state government have batted for a longer lockdown to bring the COVID-19 situation under control. Speaking to a TV channel on Friday, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar said, "I would demand that instead of just a weekend lockdown,we should go for a three-week-long strict lockdown. It is required to check the community spread and save lives of people." Wadettiwar said he would raise the demand with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Wadettiwar emphasised the government needed to "bring curbs on the movement of Railways and stop crowding in public places to prevent the community spread and save people's lives".
State Health Minister Rajesh Tope had also hinted Maharashtra was heading towards a longer lockdown. "We are heading towards complete lockdown. However, we are hoping to control the situation. I am not in favour of imposing it immediately, but if hospitals are overwhelmed, and we start facing shortage of doctors, healthcare workers, health infrastructure and medicines, then lockdown has to be imposed to break the chain,” Tope had told NDTV.
Tope was quoted by The Indian Express as saying a "two-three-week lockdown with tough restrictions would give the state time to ramp up its health infrastructure".
All-party meeting
Uddhav Thackeray has called for an all-party meeting on Saturday to discuss measures to control the COVID-19 situation. According to reports, a longer lockdown could be discussed.
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The Indian Express reported, "meeting would review the impact of the restrictions so far, and discuss whether the state needed harsher restrictions or a complete lockdown for the next few weeks. Senior ministers and leaders from opposition parties such as BJP and MNS were likely to attend."
On Friday, Maharashtra reported, 58,993 new cases of coronavirus, which pushed its overall tally to 32,88,540, while the death of 301 patients took the toll to 57,329. Maharashtra has been recording more than 55,000 cases over the past few days.
