The State Government of Maharashtra today, i.e., Saturday, May 23, 2020 said there is no decision from the State Government to resume the flight operations from Monday, May 25, 2020.
The Maharashtra Government has made it clear that its decision of extending lockdown till May 31, 2020 stands unamended. Under the lockdown, only domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance and flights for security purposes are allowed.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led government also accused the Centre of arbitrarily making the decision without consulting the State. It said that the State needs time to decide on the Standard Operating Protocols (SOP) over air travel. Therefore, the Maharashtra Government has decided to wait for a discussion with the Center before changing lockdown protocols for flight operation.
Earlier on May 20, 2020, the Minister of Civil Aviation of India – Hardeep Singh Puri had announced that domestic flights will resume from May 25, 2020. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had already informed all the airports about appropriate arrangements for sanitisation of a passenger’s baggage before their entry into the terminal building.
It is to be noted that Maharashtra continues to be the worst hit State with 47,190 cases and 1,517 casualties. The State reported 2,608 fresh cases today and 40 casualties. Mumbai alone reported 1,566 cases and 40 casualties today. The total number of cases in Mumbai is 28,817 and there have been 949 casualties.
Interacting with the Doctors of BMC-run hospitals, Uddhav Thackrey said that the number of COVID-19 patients in Mumbai are doubling over a period of 14 days. He also said that BMC had arranged for intensive care units and isolation beds at several places in the metropolis.
Separately, the Karnataka Government has said that all incoming domestic flight passengers from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh will undergo 7-day institutional quarantine followed by home quarantine.
In other developments, Tamil Nadu reported 710 new cases today. Tamil Nadu is the second most affected State with 14,753 cases and 98 casualties. While Delhi reported 591 cases, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka reported 201 and 196 cases respectively.
