Maharashtra records nearly 50,000 new COVID-19 cases as lockdown warning looms

Maharashtra records 49,447 new cases of COVID-19 and 277 deaths related to the disease in the last 24 hours.

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Mumbai: The number of coronavirus cases continued to rise with the state recording 49,447 new cases of infections and 277 deaths related to the disease in the last 24 hours. The Centre said Maharashtra has shown a nine-fold jump, the maximum increase in the number of active cases in the last two months.

Maharashtra currently has 4,01,172 active cases of which  9,090 cases have been reported from Mumbai, it has a total of 62,187 active cases.

As per its COVID-19 bulletin, Maharashtra currently has 21,57,135 people in home quarantine and 18,994 people in institutional quarantine.

CM Thackeray warns of lockdown

Stopping short of declaring a lockdown, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned that a decision will have to be taken and that currently consultations with experts and political leaders was underway.

“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 had said on Friday in a series of tweets.

Further he had said, “Some strict restrictions will have to be imposed in the coming days. In cities, we will need to avoid unnecessary crowding. In Mumbai, there is crowding during peak and non-peak hours in trains. There is crowding in restaurants and in other places as well.”

Schools and colleges closed

Meanwhile, the state education minister Varsha Gaikwad on Saturday announced to promote all students studying of Classes 1 to Class 8 without exams in view of the ongoing situation due to COVID-19

Lockdown and night curfew imposed in other states

The Odisha government on Saturday announced that night curfew would be imposed in 10 districts with effect from April 5, due to the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the state, an official order stated.

While, India on Saturday recorded 89,129 new cases — the highest since September last year. Corresponding to the rapid surge in cases, the number of active cases, too, have registered a steady increase for the 24th day in a row. The Union Health Ministry informed that eight states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh — account for 81% of the cases in the country.