Mumbai, Pune offices shut till March 31 due to COVID-19 outbreak
Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said all workplaces in major cities, including Mumbai and Pune, will be kept closed till March 31 in wake of the coronavirus outbreak that has already claimed one life in the state.This will be applicable in Mumbai, MMR Region, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nagpur, he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday (March 20) said all workplaces in major cities, including Mumbai and Pune, will be kept closed till March 31 in wake of the coronavirus outbreak that has already claimed one life in the state.
This will be applicable in Mumbai, MMR Region, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nagpur, the chief minister told reporters in Mumbai. Government offices will operate at 25 per cent attendance, said Thackeray.
His son and state minister Aaditya Thackeray, meanwhile, said all essential services shall operate during this period and appealed to the citizens to reduce unnecessary movement.
“Essential services shall operate, any other services important to operate, the collectors shall specify from time to time. Groceries, milk and other day to day items shall be available. Citizens are requested to reduce unnecessary movement,” he said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, three more positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in Maharashtra on Friday, said state health minister Rajesh Tope. This takes the total number of cases in the state to 52, the highest from any single state in the country.
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The three new cases were detected in Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the minister said. Till Thursday night, 49 cases of COVID-19 had been found in the state, including a 64-year person, who died in Mumbai earlier this week.
Tope said that five persons, who had earlier tested positive but were found negative after treatment, are being discharged on Friday. “This means that the patients are doing well and recovering,” he said.
The minister told reporters that the state government will bear the cost of Covid-19 patients under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Aroygya Yojana. Six sample testing centres are currently operating in the state and their number will be increased to 12 in the coming days, he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
