Maharashtra government ‘Retracts’ after Congress minister’s Unlock announcement

MUMBAI:  The Maha Vikas Aghadi government faced major embarrassment on Thursday, after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s office had to clarify that no decision had been taken regarding complete unlocking in 18 districts where positivity rate is below 5 per cent.

An announcement of unlocking in 18 districts was earlier made by the Relief and Rehabilitation Minister of the state, Vijay Wadettiwar.

Congress minister Wadettiwar had said the state government has taken a decision to unlock in five phases. He had said that districts where the positivity rate is below 5% will not have restrictions anymore.

However, Chief Minister Thackeray immediately clarified that there had been no such development and issued a note saying that districts where positivity rate is below 5 per cent will continue to be under restrictions.

The Chief Minister’s Office said that lifting restrictions is under consideration, but no decision has been taken. Wadettiwar, minister for Disaster Management, later said only “in principle” approval to phasing out of restrictions was given, but no decision has been taken.

He had told reporters in the afternoon that restrictions would be lifted in 18 out of 36 districts in the state where the positivity rate is five per cent or less and the occupancy of oxygen beds in hospitals is less than 25 percent from Friday.

He had held a press conference after a meeting of the State Disaster Management Authority here. The CMO statement that followed said the government has not lifted lockdown-like curbs as COVID-19has not been controlled completely yet. “The coronavirus spread is serious in some rural areas. The curbs have not been completely lifted in the state,” the statement added.

Last week the government had announced that the restrictions, imposed in April this year, would continue till June 15. The CMO statement said that the Disaster Management department has decided five levels of severity of the pandemic based on the positivity rate and availability of oxygen beds.