Maharashtra will take calculated risk on relaxations: Uddhav

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said a decision on further relaxations, including reopening local train services for all citizens, will be made in the next few days

Maharashtra recorded 6,061 fresh Covid-19 infections on Saturday, pushing the count to 6,347,820, even as the government mulls further relaxations within a few days. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said a decision on further relaxations, including reopening local train services for all citizens, will be made in the next few days. Thackeray said that the government will take a “calculated risk”, so that a possible third wave does not hit the state hard, like it did in the previous wave. The tally of active cases reduced to 71,050 as 9,356 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours. The state recorded 128 new casualties with Pune district reporting the highest (17) deaths, followed by Satara with 15 fatalities.

Maharashtra will take calculated risk on relaxations: Uddhav

The state government is planning to further ease lockdown restrictions in 25 districts where the growth rate as well as positivity rate is much less than the average. Speaking at an event in Mumbai, Thackeray said he is consulting health experts, health department officials and civic officials over putting further relaxations. The state government is considering opening up local train services for fully vaccinated people.

“We are in the process of making a decision regarding restaurant/eateries and local [trains]. I am speaking to experts, health officials in the state and in BMC. In the next two to five days, the government will announce what further relaxations will be provided,” Thackeray said.

Thackeray, who is under pressure from all quarters to provide additional operational hours for restaurants and eateries, allow fully vaccinated people to use trains, said that the government has to move ahead “cautiously” to ensure that the Covid-19 situation that has bettered in Mumbai does not reverse like it did in the second wave.

The chief minister said, “We have to move ahead cautiously so that while the take steps [towards unlocking] we don’t make any wrong moves. We have to take calculated risk. Covid situation is now better in Mumbai but we have to ensure that it does not reverse. The first wave had receded and the second wave hit us so fast. The chaos it led to is something I don’t even want to recall. Therefore, in the next few days, we will take more decisions [towards giving relaxations].”

Thackeray said that gradually things are getting back to normal again across the state as the state is easing restrictions in the state in phases. “Yesterday, representatives from hotel and restaurants associations met me. There is a demand from all to start the local trains. We have not locked up everything and misplaced the key. We have the key, and gradually we are turning it and reopening looking at the Covid situation,” he said.

State health minister Rajesh Tope also said they are working on crowd management at railway stations which will be required after allowing fully vaccinated people to travel through local services. “No one is opposed to allowing those fully vaccinated in local trains, but discussion is going on over its proper implementation. Checking certificates and allowing them to enter in the railway stations will require a separate system as we all know the number of people traveling in local trains in Mumbai is huge and the chief minister is working on the same,” Tope said.

On August 2, the state government provided relaxations from the lockdown restrictions to 25 districts where growth rate and positivity rate is less than the state’s average. It has allowed all essential and non-essential shops to stay open till 10pm, while restaurants are allowed to operate at 50% seating capacity till 4pm.

As the state government is likely to ease down curbs, the state is looking at a slight drop in the graph of Covid-19 cases. The daily cases are between 6,000 and 7,000 for the few days. In the last seven days, it has recorded 41,774 cases which is much less compared to the first week of the last month when 61,489 cases were reported.

On the other hand, there are also many districts and cities that have not reported a single case on Saturday. Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Malegaon, Parbhani, Akola and Nagpur cities reported zero cases whereas districts such as Dhule, Hingoli, Yavatmal Wardha, Bhandara and Gondia also found no cases.

On Saturday, Mumbai clocked 332 cases and reported a total 737,192 cases till date. It also recorded five fatalities, taking the toll to 15,942.

In the last 24 hours, the state tested 199,681 samples and had a positivity rate of 3.03%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 12.86%, according to the data issued by the state health department.

It has also vaccinated 304,009 people on Saturday, according to the data available on Co-Win portal. It has administered 46,682,776 doses in the state till date.