Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 6 : In view of the surge in COVID cases in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday urged political parties to cancel all rallies and religious events in the state. Thackeray today chaired a meeting of Disaster Management in which senior officials and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and other ministers like Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Eknath Shinde, Vijay Wadetiwar and others were present. In the meeting, the chief minister urged all the political parties to cancel all rallies and religious events to avoid a surge in COVID cases. “Public health is very important. Festivals can be celebrated in future. The situation can worsen if the cases of COVID increase. One must give priority to the health of the people so that we can avoid the third wave,” Thackeray said. Chief Minister also said there are clear instructions given to officials to be fully prepared for any such crisis. He appealed to parties in power and opposition to be more careful and vigilant. “One must not bring again the situations to impose strict restrictions, we have the idea of the second wave of COVID…How it started,” he added.
Maharashtra reported 4,057 new COVID cases and 67 deaths on Sunday, said the state health department. The new cases pushed the total case tally to 64,86,174. The new fatalities mounted the COVID death toll in the state to 1,37,774.
