As Covid-19 cases rise MVA Health Min Rajesh Tope warns people to brace for more stringent restrictions

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Pune: Grappling with rising Covid-19 cases, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday argued that no decision had yet been taken by the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on a possible lockdown, however warned the public to be mentally prepared for more stringent curbs in the coming days. 

“Discussions will naturally be on regarding a lockdown depending on the situation. However, people must be mentally prepared for sterner restrictions which will be in force. The objective is to preclude large gatherings. We have thus far issued two notifications, on March 15 and March 27 in a bid to ensure pandemic norms are followed,” Tope said. 

The Minister for Public Health refuted reports of shortage of beds across hospitals in the State. “There is no such situation where there is a massive shortage of beds either in Mumbai or in any other districts. Yes, there may be specific instances of problems arising in certain hospitals in a particular district where there is a lot of demand. However, the situation is far from being dire,” said Tope. 

He further disclosed that at present, there were 400 ICU beds, 2,160 oxygen beds and 213 ventilator beds available in Mumbai city itself.  “Instructions to increase the number of beds have been given to all district administrations,” Tope said.   

He said that if citizens continued to behave irresponsibly and that cases continued to rise unabated, then the government will be left with no recourse but to keep tightening the rules.  

Earlier, senior Congressman and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that if the ruling MVA government was indeed contemplating a lockdown, then it must compensate for the loss of employment of daily wage labourers with direct cash transfer benefits. 

“The government must give prior notice to the general public before implementing a lockdown if the situation so arises. Furthermore, it must keep the lockdown period as a less as possible to keep the wheels of the economy moving,” Chavan said. 

He added that during the lockdown period, the government must deposit funds directly in the bank accounts of daily wage earners to keep them afloat, as has been done in many Western countries.  

“For this, MLAs and MPs can make use of local development funds. Importantly, the government must implement a lockdown in such a way that it avoids affecting the supply chain of farmers and business people by allowing the transport of agricultural and other industrial goods to continue,” Chavan said. 

He criticized the Modi-led government at the Centre for suddenly announcing a lockdown in March last year without any planning. “This thoughtless decision has taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy and pushed more than three crore people in India below the poverty line. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the lockdown in such a way that it will minimize the damage to the economy and simultaneously help break the virus chain,” said the Congress leader.