Maharashtra tightens curbs amid fear of 3rd Covid-19 wave, Delta Plus variant concern

Amid fears of a third wave of coronavirus and cases of its highly infectious Delta Plus variant emerging in Maharashtra the state tightened restrictions with effect from Monday with essential shops allowed to remain open only till 4 pm on all daysNonessential shops and establishments can remain open till 4 pm only on weekdays as per a Maharashtra government notification issued last week which said the entire state will have level 3 restrictionsRestaurants are allowed to operate dinein facility with 50 per cent capacity till 4 pm on weekdays and takeaways and home deliveries after that according to the orderThe suburban trains will operate only for medical staff and personnel engaged in essential services while gyms and salons are allowed to remain open till 4 pm at 50 per cent capacityThe new order will impact cities like Nagpur Thane and Pune as they had seen more relaxations than Mumbai which continued to be under level 3 restrictions despite qualifying for level 1 where all curbs are allowed to be liftedThe state government on Friday announced a statelevel trigger for imposing restrictions in administrative units irrespective of the weekly positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy percentageThe weekly positivity rate regarding levels of restrictions will be determined on the basis of RTPCR tests and not rapid antigen or other tests the state government had said while describing the Delta Plus as a variant of concernRestrictions in administrative units will remain at a level not below 3 the government had said and also called for pushing for 70 per cent vaccination of eligible population in the stateEarlier this month the state government had introduced a graded system of easing the lockdownlike curbs in each district considering the Covid19 weekly positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds Districts and municipal corporations were then classified under levels 1 to 5Accordingly some cities and districts in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions had lifted restrictions and some were in level 2However last week the Maharashtra government modified the graded system and said the entire state will have level 3 restrictionsDistrict administrations have been asked to take various steps including testing vaccination and enforcement of Covid19 appropriate behaviour and penalty for violators If there is an upward trend in number of coronavirus positive cases the district disaster management authority will impose higherlevel of restrictions the order saidAttempts must be made to achieve 70 per cent vaccination of eligible population and focus should on test track and treat methodology to contain the spread of Covid19 it had saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever