Have Asked CM to Announce a Lockdown, Up to Him Now: Maha Minister

“This was the request of all ministers to CM, now it is his decision,” Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

File image of Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@CMOMaharashtra)

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, on Tuesday, 20 April, as per ANI, said that all Maharashtra ministers have requested the CM to announce a complete lockdown in the state.

“We have requested the CM to announce a complete lockdown in the state from tomorrow at 8 pm. This was the request of all ministers to CM, now it is his decision.”   

Maharashtra Minister Aslam Sheikh said:

“Looking at the shortage of supply of medical oxygen, Maharashtra is heading towards a complete lockdown; guidelines regarding it will be announced soon.”   

Maharashtra has so far been the worst-hit state in the country. On Tuesday morning, the state reported 58,924 coronavirus cases and 351 fatalities.

This has paralysed the healthcare machinery in the state, with a multitude of reports of oxygen scarcity, paucity of beds and shortage of medicines emerging from the state.

Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in Delhi, the national capital went under a six-day lockdown beginning on the night of Monday, 19 April, till Monday, 26 April morning, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced in a press briefing. Delhi on Sunday reported 25,462 fresh COVID-19 cases and a test positivity rate of nearly 30 percent.