Prepare for more stringent restrictions: Minister

No determination had but been taken by the Maharashtra authorities on a attainable lockdown, Health Minister Rajesh Tope stated on Wednesday. He, nevertheless, warned the general public to be mentally ready for more stringent curbs within the coming days.

“The objective is to avoid large gatherings. We have thus far issued two notifications, on March 15 and March 27, in a bid to ensure pandemic norms are followed,” Mr. Tope stated.

The Health Minister refuted experiences of mattress shortages throughout hospitals within the State. “There is no such situation where there is a massive shortage of beds, either in Mumbai or in other districts. Yes, there may be specific instances of problems in certain hospitals in a particular district where there is a lot of demand. However, the situation is far from being dire,” stated Mr. Tope.

At current, there have been 400 ICU beds, 2,160 oxygen beds and 213 ventilator beds obtainable in Mumbai metropolis itself. “Instructions to increase the number of beds have been given to all district administrations,” Mr. Tope stated.

He stated that if residents continued to behave irresponsibly and circumstances continued to rise unabated, then the federal government can be left with no recourse however to tighten the foundations.

Direct money switch

Earlier, senior Congressman and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had stated that if the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities (of which the Congress is part) was certainly considering a lockdown, then it should compensate the lack of employment of every day wage labourers with direct money switch advantages.

“The government must give prior notice to the general public before implementing a lockdown, if such a situation arises. Furthermore, it must keep the lockdown period as short as possible to keep the wheels of the economy moving,” Mr. Chavan stated. During the lockdown interval, the federal government should deposit funds on to the financial institution accounts of every day wage earners to maintain them afloat, as had been performed in Western nations.

“For this, MLAs and MPs can make use of local development funds. Importantly, the government must implement a lockdown in such a way that it avoids affecting the supply chain of farmers and business people by allowing the transport of agricultural and other industrial goods to continue,” Mr. Chavan stated.

He criticised the Modi-led authorities on the Centre for out of the blue asserting a lockdown in March final yr with none planning. “This thoughtless decision has taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy and pushed more than three crore people in India below the poverty line. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the lockdown in such a way that there is minimum damage to the economy and simultaneously helps break the virus chain,” stated the Congress chief.