Maharashtra Lockdown News: CM Thackeray in Favour of Relaxing Restrictions From August 1, Says Report

However, as per the report, the Chief Minister has called for stringent measures in rural areas in the view of a spurt in new cases there.

Maharashtra Lockdown News: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has told the state cabinet that the existing lockdown norms across the state will be relaxed from August 1, The Times of India has reported.

“I’m not using the word ‘lockdown’, I’ll call it ‘unlockdown’. Current restrictions will be relaxed further. We’re in the process of further strengthening the health infrastructure in Mumbai Metropolitan region within a week. However, since there has been a sudden spurt of cases in rural parts of the state, stringent measures will have to be taken there”, The Times of India quoted the Maharashtra Chief Minister as saying.

According to the report, the state government will wait for the Centre’s guidelines on ‘Unlock 3.0’, with the ongoing ‘Unlock 2.0’ scheduled to end on July 31. The government, as per the report, thinks that the Centre would not grant permission to reopen restaurants, gyms and swimming pools in urban areas, or allow buses in urban and rural areas.

The Maharashtra government had earlier extended the lockdown across the state till July 31. The western state, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases in India, on Thursday, registered a record spike of 9,895 cases and 298 deaths. Its overall COVID-19 count, thus far, stands at 3,47,502, including 1,94,253 recoveries, 1,40,395 active cases and 12,854 deaths.

While state capital Mumbai is the second worst-hit city after Delhi, cities like Pune and Nagpur, too, are among the worst-hit in the country.