COVID-19 Spike: CM Uddhav Thackeray instructs officials to plan for second complete lockdown in Maharashtra

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that the COVID cases are rising because people are not following guidelines seriously and that is why strict steps like lockdown are needed to be considered.

At a meeting with senior health officials and COVID task force, Uddhav instructed them to prepare for restrictions similar to lockdown if people continue to violate COVID-related rules.

On Saturday, the number of Covid-19 deaths in



Maharashtra crossed the 54,000-mark as the state again retreated into stringent semi-lockdown style restrictions from Saturday night.

The state recorded 166 new deaths, pushing up the total number of fatalities to 54,073, just 10 days after zooming past the 53,000-mark on March 17.

The state also added another 35,726 new cases - down from the highest ever tally of 36,902 recorded on March 26, taking the overall caseload to 26,73,461, the highest in the country.