Will be forced to impose lockdown in Maharashtra, warns Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said there will be no option left, but to impose a strict lockdown in the state if COVID-19 norms continue to be floated in the state till April 2.

"Next Friday a decision about lockdown will be taken. If COVID-19 numbers keep increasing then we will have to take a strict decision about it," said Pawar after a review meeting in Pune.

"Exams of SSC and HSC board will happen as scheduled but only the rules laid out for it will have to be followed by the education institutes as well as students/parents," he added.

Maharashtra has been witnessing an upsurge in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks with over 31,000 cases being recorded on Thursday.

Pawar also asserted that there will not be any shortage of oxygen supply in the state.

"Last time we had some problems related to oxygen supply but fortunately, we have an oxygen plant set up in the Junnar area of Pune now so there is no issue of oxygen shortage now. An officer has been given the duty to keep track of oxygen supply, he will make sure the transport and supply of the oxygen are not affected," said Pawar.

"In today's meeting, it was decided that 50 per cent of beds at private hospitals will be reserved for COVID patients. Public events must be stopped immediately, there shall be no more than 50 people at any of the event and for the funeral, the count must not be more than 20 people. The positivity rate for Pune has reached 25 per cent,' he added.

Talking about the COVID-19 norm being tossed in the state, Pawar said, "Even today in some places today people do not have fear which they had when initial cases were reported first-time last year."

"We have spoken to union minister Prakash Javdekar after this meeting and informed that we have 216 vaccination centres in the Pune district and we want to double it so that we can vaccinate more people. Vaccines sent by the central government will lack or something like that may happen if we increase vaccination that we informed to centre. Even Javdekar sahib said that help will be provided," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )