Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Saturday indicated that by the end of November, remaining restrictions under lockdown will also be lifted in the state and all sectors will be allowed to reopen.
Tope while speaking to reporters at Ahmednagar on Saturday said that the government is now planning to give permission of reopening schools and religious places in the coming days.
“We have already allowed restaurants and bars. In the next phase, possibly during Diwali, we will have to reopen schools,” said Tope.
The health minister said that the government’s approach is to open various sectors step by step and within the next two months, everything will be reopened.
“The flight operations have resumed and train services are also in the process of restarting. I think step by step, schools, religious places and gymnasiums will be allowed to open. By the end of November, lockdown will be lifted 100 per cent,” said Tope.
There is a growing demand from various organisations to reopen temples and other shrines in Maharashtra. The principal opposition in Maharashtra, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena and Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi have staged protest demanding temples to reopen. The gymnasiums owners in the state too have urged government for permission to operate considering the financial loss they are facing.
Despite the protest, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has not given permission to reopen temples and gymnasium. His cabinet colleagues have maintained that CM is cautious about reopening due to the Covid-19 situation in the state.
The minister also announced bringing down RT-PCR (Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test rates in Maharashtra by Rs 400.
“The RT-PCR test rates at private labs, which was brought down to Rs 1,200 earlier will be further reduced to Rs 800. This will happen within a week,” said Tope. During the early phase of the pandemic in March, the Centre had capped the price of RT-PCR test, considered to be gold standard for its accuracy, to Rs 4,500.
By Hindustan Times
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