Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted Thursday Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s suggestion that religious leaders should be asked to refrain from holding large gatherings. Uddhav Thackeray made the suggestion during a video conference with Modi, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.
During the meeting, Uddhav Thackeray told Modi that the Maharashtra administration has traced all citizens from the state who participated in the congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi, and those people have been quarantined. The prime minister also accepted Thackeray’s suggestion that religious leaders should be asked to refrain from holding large gatherings.
Modi asked all chief ministers to speak to religious leaders from their respective states and ask them to tell the community members about the need for social distancing and avoiding large gatherings, the CMO said in a statement.
Modi also supported Thackeray’s view that citizens need to be in good mental health during the lockdown period, it said. Thackeray told the prime minister that the nationwide lockdown will be completely followed in Maharashtra.
Thackeray also said that the Maharashtra government has made provisions of food and accommodation for 3.25 lakh migrant workers in state-run shelter homes and special medical assistance was being provided to ensure they remain in good mental health.
The Maharashtra chief minister also said that sufficient isolation facilities have been created in this city and as per the new protocol, asymptomatic persons are also being isolated outside hospitals.
The local administration has taken over some empty premises for this purpose and there is plan to create more isolation and quarantine facilities. Thackeray also said that since private labs have been permitted to conduct coronavirus tests, the results of samples tested in two to three days are being declared together, and this is the reason why there seems to be a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases.
PTI