The total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra went up to 10,498 after 583 new cases were reported on Thursday. A state health department official said Mumbai city alone reported a jump of 417 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 6,061, according to PTI.
Mumbai and Pune are likely to extend the lockdown till 18 May, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope was quoted as saying by Livemint. Mumbai has also been designated as a red zone by the Union health ministry. The Centre’s guidelines state that districts with high load of coronavirus cases or which have a high growth rate of the disease are classified under red zones, Hindustan Times said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the areas in the state have been divided into three zones — red, orange and green — and the restrictions will be lifted in a zone-wise manner.
“The Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which includes Mumbai, Palghar, Thane, Panvel, Mira Bhayandar are in the red zone, so is Pune and areas like Nagpur, Aurangabad,” Mumbai Mirror quoted the CM as saying.
“In these areas, we can’t make any changes. In the orange zones, we are working on what all can be done. However, we have a system in place in the green zones,” he added, according to the Mumbai Mirror report.
Thackeray said that in orange zones, even though there are no new positive cases, some active cases do exist, while in green zones there are no cases.
(With PTI inputs)