Lockdown in Maharashtra extended for 15 days

Mumbai : Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday announced an extension in lockdown for 15 days, fearing chances of third wave of coronavirus. "We should not let our guards down," he said while addressing a press conference.

"I don’t know when and what date the third wave will come. So we should not let our guard down…If the third wave comes at a strong intensity, then we will have a problem with oxygen supply because this time we needed 1700 MT every day," Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.

He also mentioned that certain relaxations will be given to districts in accordance to their case load.

Even though the daily number of coronavirus cases has declined in the state, they are still more than the peak during the last wave of coronavirus.

"Maharashtra’s oxygen generation capacity of 1250 MT was increased to 1300 MT but daily requirement went up to 1700 MT," he noted.

Earlier, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope had announced on Friday that the coronavirus lockdown in the state is likely to be extended from June 1.

Maharashtra registered 18,600 new cases today and 402 deaths in the last 24 hours. The recoveries went up by 22,532, while the active caseload in the state stands at 2,71,801.