Maharashtra Covid-19 lockdown news: State reports 51,751 new Covid cases, 258 deaths

The central team that visited Pune has said that a full lockdown is not necessary here and the current restrictions, with people following Covid-19 protocols, were enough. “A full lockdown is never the solution for any place. The current restrictions if managed well can help break the chain,” some of the team’s members told TOI.

In a meeting with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, members of the state task force are believed to have expressed mixed feelings about a complete lockdown and how far it would help to curb the pandemic at this stage. In a bid to take a stock of the financial burden and to consider providing some relief to daily wagers and labourers and the underprivileged, Thackeray will have a meeting with the finance minister and senior officials in the next two days before announcing a decision on a complete lockdown.

For the first time in the 13 months of the pandemic, Maharashtra reported over 60,000 new positive cases in a single day. The state is conducting an average of 2.5 lakh tests daily, one of the highest in the country, officials said. Mumbai saw 9,986 new cases on Sunday, taking the tally to 5,20,498. While the case growth seems to have steadied with an average of 9,300 detections daily, down from the high of 11,000 cases in the first week of April, deaths in the city have started to rise sharply. On Sunday, Mumbai saw 79 deaths, the highest in 284 days. The city’s cumulative toll touched 12,023 on Sunday.

As many as 386 vehicles were seized and over 1250 motorists penalized by the Thane traffic department for violating safety norms during lockdown on Saturday.

Maharashtra has administered Covid-19 vaccine doses to over one crore people so far, a senior health official said on Sunday.