A day after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned of a lockdown at least in some parts of the state, Parbhani has gone into a weekend lockdown and Nashik may well go into a lockdown from Monday. Mumbai and Pune though won’t have a lockdown as of now.Parbhani guardian minister Malik on Friday announced a week-end lockdown in the district following the rising corona cases. Malik said that the lockdown would start from 12 am on Friday night and will go on till 6 am on Monday. Parbhani district reported 1,020 active cases as of Friday.Nashik may well join Parbhani as divisional collector Suraj Mandhare on Friday warned that they will keep a watch on the situation till Sunday and if it does not improve, then “drastic measures will have to be taken.”The Nashik administration has already asked shops and establishments to be closed on weekends.Pune, though, has escaped the lockdown as of now. Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday held a meeting with Pune officials and it was decided that they would implement restrictions strictly.Accordingly, the operating time for hotels and restaurants has been further curtailed, these establishments will be allowed to operate only till 10 pm.
Takeaways and home deliveries will be allowed till 11 pm. These establishments will also have to operate at 50% of their seating capacity and would have to display ouside their premises the number of patrons inside their establishments.Only 50 people would be allowed to gather at weddings, funerals, political or social events. All public gardens and parks in Pune city would be closed in the evenings. The Pune administration has also said that citizens would not be allowed to walk on roads ‘unnecessarily’ from 11 pm to 6 am. Schools and college will remain shut till March 31.Mumbai has seen a spike in cases with more than 1,500 cases being reported on Thursday. However, additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani while speaking to the media on Friday said that the situation is under control and “no lockdown would be imposed as of now.” Nagpur will begin its lockdown from March 15 to March 21 while Jalgaon has already been under lockdown from March 11 to March 15.
