Hours after Maharashtra minister Vijay Wadettiwar on Thursday, 3 June, announced that the state has planned a five-level unlock plan, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office contradicted him, saying that restrictions have not yet been lifted.
A proposal for the lifting of restrictions is still under consideration, the statement from the CMO said, adding that the COVID outbreak in the state has not been contained completely yet.
The press release also said that the Disaster Management department has decided five levels of severity of the COVID-19 situation based on the positivity rate and availability of oxygen beds. The degree of relaxation will be decided based on the level of severity and further action would be announced soon, the CMO said.
Minister Backtracks on Statement
Earlier, Wadettiwar said that Maharashtra has prepared a five-level unlock plan for the state on the basis of positivity rate and status of occupancy of oxygen beds in the districts, based on which unlocking will start in 18 districts from Friday.
Later, Wadettiwar, the minister for Disaster Management, however said that only "in principle" approval had been given to phasing out of restrictions and said no decision had been taken, reported PTI.
“No ‘unlock’ is happening in the state. Even though in-principle approval has been given, final decision will be taken by the chief minister,” the Congress leader said.
Last week, the Maharashtra government had announced that it had decided to extend the ongoing stringent lockdown-type restrictions across the state till 1 June.
Maharashtra on Thursday reported 15,229 COVID-19 cases, 307 fatalities and 25,617 recoveries, taking the total cases in the state to 57,91,413, while death toll rose to 97,394.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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