Maharashtra contemplating completion of Covid-19 Unlock process in November

With Covid-19 cases reducing and the number of people getting discharged increasing, Maharashtra Government is planning to complete the Unlock process by Diwali or end of November.

In the last seven months, Maharashtra’s progressive total positive cases have gone beyond 15 lakh and the deaths have surpassed 40,000. However, over 12.5 lakh people have recovered.

The two vast regions – the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) and the Pune metropolitan region (PMR) - have reported the maximum cases and are limping back to normalcy – though people seem to lower their guard.

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Three key developments in the last week indicate that the government wants to end the lockdown and go back to its usual self but with the new normal measures and protocols in place.

Over the next few days, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray would hold a series of meetings to finalise the plan.

“Maharashtra will be unlocked fully by November. We will have to take precautions and live with Covid-19. Let's hope that schools, religious places and gyms will be reopened in the state in phases, and the whole of Maharashtra will be unlocked by November,” state Public Health and Family Welfare Minister Rajesh Tope said in Pune.

Last week, the government opened restaurants, bars and eateries to 50 per cent capacity and would be scaled up in the months to come.

As far as Mumbai-MMR is concerned, much depends on local trains of the Central Railway and Western Railway, considered the lifeline of India’s financial capital. As of now over 1,200 services are being run in the five lines of Mumbai – but only people working with Central and State governments, municipal services, police, banks besides others in essential services are allowed.

The Bombay High Court has urged the state to look into the possibility of increasing the frequency of trains. "We are now in partial lockdown. Malls are open, hotels are allowed to remain open, government offices are working with 100 per cent staff and several other sectors are now working. Railway services need to correspond with this…tthe frequency of local trains on all has to be increased to reduce overcrowding,” said a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni.

During the weekly Cabinet meeting last week, Thackeray has asked School Education, Higher and Technical Education departments to plan the opening of schools and colleges and coaching centres in a phased manner.