Coronavirus: Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases in India
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar went into a huddle on Saturday for over 40 minutes to hammer out the details of the way forward for the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The two leaders are working on easing the lockdown in the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in a phased manner, sources said.
New guidelines on what would be allowed to open after June 1 are likely to be out by Sunday evening, sources said.
They said industries and ecommerce including non-essentials can open outside containment zones, even in Mumbai and Pune.
The centre has already announced that all services and places outside coronavirus containment zones, except a select list including international flights and gyms, can reopen after June 1.
A total of 2,940 new cases and 99 deaths were reported on Saturday in Maharashtra, taking the total to 65,168 and 2,197, respectively.
Mumbai is the nation's worst-affected city with 38,442 cases.
The spike in cases in Maharashtra comes amid a worrying surge across the country. India has reported over 6,000 COVID-19 cases every day since May 21, with the last two yielding over 7,000 each.
There have been over 1.74 lakh cases in India, Health Ministry data showed on Saturday morning, with 86,422 of them still active and 4,971 deaths. The country is the ninth most-affected by the coronavirus pandemic, having moved up two spots in less than seven days.