A stringent 12-hour curfew in between 6 pm and 6 am has been imposed across Pune district for seven days, beginning on Saturday. The Pune district administration on Friday also announced that malls, bars, restaurant, cinema halls and bus services in Pune will be closed for the next seven days. Only household delivery of meals will be permitted. All areas of worship will also be shut.
There is no lockdown, nevertheless, and manufacturing business and offices will continue to operate. Offices will be permitted to operate with 50% employees in attendance. Companies will have to organise transportation for their workers.
The choice to impose the curfew was taken soon after a assessment meeting in between Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the district administration and elected representatives of Pune.
Only critical services will be permitted throughout curfew hours. Barring funerals and weddings, no political, social or religious gathering will be permitted. Schools and colleges have been shut till April 30, but Class X and XII exams will go on as planned.
Divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao stated a middle road had to be identified to deal with the surge in Covid-19 instances and minimize the speed at which the virus was getting transmitted. Pune has observed 8,000-plus instances for 3 consecutive days and a positivity price of 32%. Health authorities have warned that at this price, Pune would have 9,000 every day instances in the next couple of days, Rao stated.
The district reported 8,011 new instances on Friday with 65 deaths. The total Covid-19 death toll in Pune crossed the 10,000-mark and reached 10,039 on Friday morning. Going by final year’s practical experience, this wave is probably to final 4 to 5 weeks, Rao stated.
Industry bodies — the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and CII-Pune — had been relieved that a complete-blown lockdown was not announced.
MCCIA president and CMD of Pinnacle Industries Sudhir Mehta stated, nevertheless, that the heightened uncertainty had unsettled inter-state and intra-state migrant labour and this was going to hurt the recovery procedure.
Deepak Garg, chairman, CII Pune Zonal Council, and MD of Sany Heavy Industry India, stated the suspension of public bus services would influence MSMEs and their workers.
The business bodies stated it was challenging for smaller sized businesses that did not have the sources to organise or employ autos to ferry workers.
CII-Pune and MCCIA have stated closing bus services will also influence hospital employees and citizens travelling for vaccination. They have appealed to the central government to open up vaccination for every person above the age of 18, and to prioritise areas like Pune that are amongst the most impacted by the pandemic.
Apart from imposing these restrictions, the administration’s concentrate will be on bed management, hospital management and ramping up vaccination to one lakh per day. The district administration was also working on escalating hospital beds to attain the peak levels of 2020 by April 5, Rao stated.
The jumbo Covid-19 hospitals in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad are operating at complete capacity and unused ventilators in components of the district are getting diverted to Pune city. Around 525 beds had been added on Thursday and Friday and one more 250 beds will be added by next week.