Highlights:
- On 28th June the Maharashtra government urged caution
- On 29th June the Maharashtra government announced lockdown extension until 31st July
The Maharashtra government has announced the extension of the lockdown put in place owing to the novel Coronavirus until 31st July as the state stares at the steady rising number of COVID-19. Issuing the fresh guidelines, the government called it “Mission Begin Again”, and said that the movement of all non-essential activities will be restricted in the neighbourhood of Mubmai Metropolitan Region.
The statement read, “It is further directed that the movement of persons for the purposes of non-essential activities like shopping and the outdoor exercises, shall be restricted within the neighbourhood area limits with all necessary prescribed mandatory precautions of wearing masks, social distancing and personal hygiene,”.
The government say that only those people who are attending offices or emergencies will be allowed movement in the state. Adding, “It is also directed that unrestricted movement will be permitted only for attending a place of work and bonafide humanitarian requirement including medical reason”.
It said that the essential shops, e-commerce activities for both essential and non-essential items will remain allowed. Adding that all the industial units which are currently operational and the home delivery of foods will also be allowed.
All essential and non-essential shops and markets will be allowed to operate between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM with exceptions being Malls and Market complexes.
It said, “All Government offices (excluding Emergency, health and Medical, treasuries, disaster management, police, NIC, food and Civil Supply, FCI, NYK, Municipal Services) to function with 15% strength or 15 persons – whichever is higher,”.
Also, all private officers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) will be allowed to operate with 10% strength or 10 people.
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It is said that activities pertaining to the self-employed category such as electricians, plumbers, pest controllers, printing, garages, and distribution of newspapers (including home delivery) have been allowed in the MMR. Additionally, the barbershops have also been allowed.
The MMR has been the biggest contributor of COVID-19 figures for Maharashtra. Apart from MMR, the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance government has given relaxations to the rest of the state.
It said, “Intra-district bus service will be allowed with maximum 50% capacity per bus with physical distancing and sanitation measures.”
On Sunday, the Mumbai Police said that none of the non-essential service movement will be allowed outside the radius of 2 kilometres from their houses. Today, the city witnessed a massive traffic jam at multiple locations as the police established checkpoints at multiple points to enforce the rule.
Maharashtra has been the biggest contributor to COVID-19 in India with 1,64,626 total cases and 7,429 deaths. The numbers are so high that if Maharashtra were to be a country, it would have placed 16th on the Coronameter in the whole world, above France in terms of total cases.
On Sunday, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray said that despite the progress in combating the novel Coronavirus, the crisis is still at large and urged the public of the state to religiously follow the rules which will make sure the lockdown will not have to be re-imposed.
