Maharashtra Lockdown Extended Till June 1, Here Are New Guidelines

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Thursday announced to extend the ongoing lockdown till 7 am on June 1 to break the COVID-19 transmission chain in the state.

The decision to continue with the coronavirus restrictions was taken following a Cabinet meeting of the ministers on Wednesday. The lockdown was supposed to end at 7 am on May 15.

The state has also made a negative RT-PCR report mandatory for those entering the state. The test report will have to be issued within 48 hours before the time of entry into the state.

Under the new orders, all government offices (centre, state, local administrative), except emergency services related to the coronavirus pandemic, will open with only 15 percent attendance.

Restrictions will also be imposed on weddings and only 25 people will be able to attend the ceremony. Under the new restrictions, the wedding ceremony will have to be arranged in a single hall and should be completed in two hours as a single event. A fine of Rs 50,000 will be imposed for violating the rules.

Maharashtra has suspended the Covid vaccination for the 18-44 years age group temporarily due to the unavailability of vaccines.

Maharashtra registered 46,781 new COVID-19 cases on May 12, pushing the caseload to 52,26,710. The state recorded 816 more coronavirus deaths, taking the fatality count to 78,007.

As per the latest official data, Maharashtra has 5,46,129 active cases while the COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 88.01 per cent.