In Pics: Streets of Mumbai wear a empty look on first day of weekend lockdown

On the first day of the weekend lockdown imposed across Maharashtra in view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases, streets wore a deserted look in many parts of Mumbai.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has permitted citizens, who are eligible to get the Covid jab, to travel only to the vaccination centres and back during lockdown.

Places such as Andheri-Kurla Link Road or Dadar flower market, which witness heavy footfalls during the day, were empty on Saturday.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held an all-party meeting on Saturday to build consensus on the steps needed to break the chain of transmission.

The possibility of imposing a complete lockdown was the main topic discussed during the meeting.

On Friday, Health Minister Rajesh Tope had said Maharashtra seemed headed towards a lockdown while Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar said the time for such a step was already here.

The state has reported more than 50,000 Covid-19 cases daily for some time now. Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday that 1,45,384 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, a new record high.

Fearing another possibility of total lockdown, migrant workers and their families have been leaving the state to return to their hometowns again.

Maharashtra Labour Minister Hasan Mushrif has requested migrant workers to not leave the state, and assured them that the government has no plans of shutting down industrial production.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is in favour of a complete lockdown in the state that is struggling with an unprecedented rise in coronavirus cases, as per a NDTV report.

However, the report adds not all members of the Shiv Sena-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition that rules the state are in favour of a lockdown and neither is the opposition BJP.