Lockdown to be reimposed in Maharashtra? Deputy CM Ajit Pawar makes a key revelation

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday said that the government will assess the situation in the few days, following which a decision will be taken if lockdown will be required or not. "There were huge crowds during Diwali period. Even at the time of Ganesha Chaturthi, we saw crowds. We are speaking to relevant departments. We'll review the situation for next 8-10 days and then a decision will be taken about the lockdown," said Pawar in Pune. "Now there are predictions that second wave may come. Government has made a lot of regulations to start schools, which includes different ways on how they should be sanitized," he further said.

The state government has allowed reopening of schools for classes 9 to 12 from tomorrow depending on the Covid-19 situation in local areas.Pawar's statement comes at a time when speculations are gathering steam about the state considering a possible suspension of train and flight operations to and from Delhi in view of the rising coronavirus cases in the national capital. "Various measures are being discussed in order to curb the virus spread in the state, and suspension of train and flight operations to and from Delhi is one of them," Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar told PTI. Reopening of schools has been postponed in Pimpri Chinchwad till 30 November in view of Covid-19 situation. 

"A total of 17 teachers and teaching staff have tested Covid positive out of 5,671 samples tested in the rural area of Pune. More teachers & teaching staff will be tested," said Pune Zila Parishad on Sunday. Maharashtra on Saturday reported 5,760 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the count of infections to 17,74,455, a health department official said. With 62 people succumbing to the infection, the cumulative toll reached 46,573, he said.A total of 4,088 patients were discharged in the day, raising the tally of recoveries to 16,47,004, the official said, adding that the state is now left with 79,873 active cases.Mumbai city reported 1,093 fresh cases, pushing the cumulative count to 2,74,579 while the number of fatalities mounted by 17 to 10,656.