Despite the Covid cases in the state are on decline, the Maharashtra government on Thursday extended the ongoing lockdown till June 1. The government imposed ‘Break the Chain’ restrictions was supposed to end on May 15. 

An order issued by Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte said, All the restrictions that have been imposed vide ‘Break the chain orders dated April 13, 21, and 29 and May 1 along with all additions and clarification issued thereof as well as imposes following additional restrictions in the state till 7am on June 1, the order said.

As per the new order, any person entering the state by any mode of transport will have to carry a negative Rt-PCR test report which would have to be issued a maximum of 48 hours before its entry into Maharashtra.The same rule apply for cargo carriers, which can have a maximum of two occupants, also the test reports for persons will remain valid for seven days. 

The directives said that all restrictions put in place as per earlier orders for people arriving from places of sensitive origin will be applicable to anyone arriving from any part of the country into the state. The local district administrations are also directed to keep a special vigil over rural markets and agriculture produce market committees (APMCs) and to ensure Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.

Further, it has been ordered that the district administrations can shut down APMCs on after reviewing the situation case by case basis in the event of indisciplined behaviour by errant citizens and vendors or violations of pandemic norms on their part.

Maharashtra, the highest contributor to the daily new Covid-19 infections in the country, has been reporting a decline in Covid cases over the past few days. As per the Union Ministry data, a decline of more than 30,000 active cases was recorded on Wednesday. Also, the positivity rate has fallen to 17.36 percent while the fatality rate has gone down to 1.49 percent.

As of Wednesday, the state found 46,781 people infected with the disease in the last 24 hours, while 816 lost their lives to the infection, while up to 58,805 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours. The overall caseload has reached 5,226,710, the active caseload stands at over 546,000 and the death toll has reached 78,007, the health bulletin showed.

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