Maharashtra cabinet meet on lockdown today | Economic Times

Maharashtra relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar on Monday said the government is looking at a complete lockdown in the state. The government has scheduled a cabinet meet on Tuesday and, according to people aware of the development, a decision on enforcing a complete lockdown in the state could be taken at this meeting.“We have as of yet not gone for a full lockdown, we have just put a curfew,” Wadettiwar said. “Now (with cases rising), everyone from traders and common people to political parties are asking us to impose a full lockdown. We have conveyed this to the chief minister, and we are expecting that a decision on the lockdown would be taken in the next two days.”Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will speak with experts and different stakeholders before taking a call on the decision to go for a full lockdown, Wadettiwar said. Speaking after a Covid-19 review meeting, the minister also said they are studying the Delhi lockdown measures and their effectiveness. There is a consensus within the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance that there needs to be tighter restrictions akin to last year’s lockdown to bring down the cases in the state, he said. At Monday’s review meeting, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said the state would issue an order henceforth allowing grocery shops only for four hours from 7am till 11am in the morning. “People have been roaming outside their homes the entire day and when stopped claim they are going for grocery shopping,” health minister Rajesh Tope told reporters after the meeting. “We decided that a notification would be amended to allow grocery shops only for four hours.” Transport minister Anil Parab said the government will also issue fresh SOPs for travelling within districts, hinting at new restrictions on movement.Stressing the need to check the spread of the pandemic immediately, Tope said the state is already consuming all the 1,550 metric tonnes of oxygen at its disposal including its own production 1,250 mt and another 300 mt sent by the Centre. “The Centre has said that they would be giving another 300 tonnes of oxygen in parts after April 25 till April 30. So, basically, we need to consume not more than 300 tonnes of oxygen till April 30,” he said. Maharashtra Covid cases dipped to 58,924 on Monday a day after record high.