Maharashtra on Thursday announced its ‘unlock’ plan into five levels as the COVID-19 cases in the state decreasing.
State Minister Vijay Wadettiwar said, “We have prepared a 5-level unlock plan for the State on the basis of positivity rate and status of occupancy of oxygen beds in the districts. Districts with the lowest positivity rate will have no restrictions.”
“There are a total of 18 districts in Maharashtra, which come under level 1, they will be unlocked from tomorrow,” he added.
Theatres, malls, private and government offices will be permitted to open in these districts. Weddings, funerals and film shooting will also be allowed in such places, the minister elaborated. Districts under Level 1 include Aurangabad, Bhandara, Dhule, Gadchiroli, Jalgaon, Jalna, Nanded, Nashik, Parbhani and Thane.
Level 5 has been dubbed the Red Zone, which will be under complete lockdown. Mumbai is on Level 2. The local train service, lifeline of the city, will remain shut for now.
While announcing that restrictions to stop the chain of transmission of COVID-19 will remain in place till June 15, the government eased some of the conditions on Sunday, allowing shops of essential items to remain open till 2 pm instead of 11 am. The state also allowed the delivery of non-essential items through e-commerce, which was on freeze.