Mumbai:

Expressing his disinterest in imposing the lockdown in the state, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said, “I do not want to impose it but ‘majboori’ (helplessness) is also something.”

“I do not want to impose lockdown in the state but ‘majboori’ is also something,” the Chief Minister said during a press conference in Mumbai.

Mr Thackeray also urged people of the state to wear masks to avoid lockdown.

However, the Chief Minister assured that he is continuously monitoring the situation.

Maharashtra had been witnessing an upsurge in COVID-19 cases for the last few days.

It reported 8,293 new coronavirus cases, 3,753 recoveries, and 62 deaths in the last 24 hours, the State Health Department informed yesterday.

A total of 52,154 people have died due to COVID-19 in the state so far. As many as 20,24,704 people have recovered from the disease.

According to the state health department, the recovery rate in Maharashtra is 93.95 percent and the fatality rate is 2.42 percent.

Commenting on the fuel price hike in the country, Thackeray said: “Petrol and diesel prices have gone up. We have seen centuries by Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar but now we are seeing petrol-diesel century.”