Maharashtra govt extends lockdown until May 31 in Mumbai, Pune and hotspots
More than 50 days has passed since India’s nationwide lockdown, meant to stop the novel coronavirus pandemic. Curently there are 81000 Plus calse of COVID-19 in India and expected to reach 1 Lakh by next couple of weeks . The death toll in India due to the outbreak has reached 2,649.
Globally, 4,526,992 people have been infected by coronavirus so far, and the total number of deaths from the disease now stands at 303,407.
Maharashtra has close to 26,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 1,000 deaths. Mumbai accounts for 15,747 cases and 596 deaths.
Maharashtra’s Industry Minister Subhash Desai confirmed to NDTV that the lockdown will be extended in Mumbai and other major cities.
“Looking at the situation we see that lockdown has to continue in some areas. Our first challenge is to fight coronavirus,” the minister said on Thursday.
“Looking at the rate of increase of virus cases, we have to extend the lockdown in Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad and Malegaon town in Nashik district till May 31. The state’s view will be conveyed to the centre in writing,” said Mr Desai. as per NDTV
Finance Minister Sitharaman on Thursday unveiled her second tranche of stimulus worth Rs 3.16 trillion. The package includes free food grain for migrant workers, credit support to farmers and working capital loan for street vendors.
The nationwide shutdown, which was first enforced on March 24, has been extended twice, on April 14 and May 4. The third phase will end on May 17.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, said there will be a fourth phase of the lockdown, which will be very different from the earlier three phases with new rules.
The World Bank has approved $1 billion ‘Accelerating India’s COVID-19 Social Protection Response Program’ to support the country’s efforts for providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the pandemic. This takes the total commitment from the World Bank towards emergency COVID-19 response in India to $2 billion.
A $1 billion support was announced last month to support India’s health sector.
