Maha govt to issue fresh guidelines to curb crowding in view of spike in COVID-19 cases

The Maharashtra government has decided to impose fresh restrictions in the state to avoid crowding in view of the rising cases of COVID-19, and it will issue guidelines regarding these curbs, an official said on Friday.

The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a statement late night on Thursday that the guidelines will be issued on Friday.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held talks with the members of the state COVID-19 task force. They discussed the ways to avoid crowding during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, weddings and parties at hotels and restaurants, it said.

The statement said the meeting also discussed the restrictions imposed in other states and the spike in COVID-19 in USA and Europe.

The daily coronavirus case count in Maharashtra has been rising over the past few days. The state on Thursday reported 1,179 new coronavirus cases, a day after it saw 1,201 new infections.

On Monday, the state had added 544 cases, while the next day it had logged 825 cases. On Thursday, Maharashtra reported 23 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, highest in a single day so far, which took the state’s tally of such cases to 88.