Why Maharashtra govt kept mum before announcing Covid-19 weekend lockdown

Health officials, as well as the state government, have been lamenting the lack of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour

While the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation imposed weekend lockdown in Maharashtra, the Centre had reportedly argued that such curbs have limited impact in combating rising Covid-19 cases. In fact, the state government officials kept mum about its lockdown plans during a high-level meeting with the Centre held on April 5.

The Centre's stance that measures like weekend lockdowns have little to do with containing the surge in Covid-19 cases could have prompted the Maharashtra government's silence, senior officials told The Indian Express.

Also read: Maharashtra imposes weekend lockdown, night curfew

Maharashtra has been reporting record single-day spikes amounting to nearly 60 per cent of India's daily coronavirus tally. On Tuesday, the state reported 55,469 cases, with Mumbai reporting over 10,000 cases. Meanwhile, India's overall coronavirus cases stood at over 1,26,86,049.

A total of 26,291 new cases were registered in a day on March 15, after which Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had shot off a letter to the Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte asserting that "measures such as night curfews, weekend lockdowns etc. have very limited impact on containing/suppressing the transmission". Bhushan had urged the state to focus on strict containment strategies, strengthening surveillance and augmenting testing.

(With PTI inputs)