Maharashtra govt allows industries to operate during lockdown, but with conditions

india

Updated: Apr 19, 2020 13:46 IST

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the state government will allow industries to resume operations from Monday in areas marked green and orange according to the spread of Covid-19 there. However, the industries will be allowed subject to certain limits, he added at a press briefing on Friday.

“Tomorrow onwards we’re starting some financial activities. As we don’t run our economy now, we’ll be in financial crisis after we come out of coronavirus crisis. We’re starting some business activities in a limited way. Fortunately,several of our districts have zero positive case,” Thackeray said.

Maharashtra has been hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of infected crossing 3,000.

In red zones, which are under strictest restrictions, there won’t be any relaxation. “Door-to-door delivery of newspapers would not be allowed in Mumbai and Pune which are in red zone,” said the chief minister.

He also announced that no suburban train will operate till May 3, the date till which nationwide lockdown has been extended.

Thackeray also said that there is no need to be scared of the disease. “95 percent tests negative so people need not be scared of Covid-19. Do not hide it if you have symptoms and aproach government hospitals,” said Thacekray.

No new cases of Covid-19 were recorded on Sunday morning in Maharashtra and the tally of Covid-19 cases remained at 3,648 cases and 211 deaths, state health department officials said.

After a relatively lower number of news cases on Thursday and Friday, the state recorded new 328 Covid-19 cases on Saturday.

Mumbai, which has the highest number of cases in the state, recorded 184 new cases on Saturday taking the tally to 2,268.The city’s death toll is now 126 according to state health department’s data.