New Delhi, April 20: In the wake of the rising cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has written to the state government over violations to COVID19 lockdown measures. In its letter, the MHA stated that COVID-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai and Pune and violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. The letter further added that an Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) will visit Mumbai and Pune to make on-spot assessment of situation following which it will issue necessary directions to the State. Catch Live Updates of Coronavirus in India and World.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said that no one should think that lockdown has been lifted and strict action will be taken against people violating rules. "We have just tried to revolve the wheel of economy a bit. I've heard that some people are treating relaxations as lifting of lockdown.If they continue to behave like this we'll take strict measures", he added.

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Earlier in the day, the government  had stated that the COVID-19 situation is serious in several cities in India which includes Indore (MP); Mumbai & Pune (Maharashtra); Jaipur (Rajasthan); and Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong & Jalpaiguri (West Bengal). It added saying violation of lockdown measures pose a serious health hazard to public and risk for spread of COVID-19.

The MHA said that the government constituted 8 Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) to assess the situation in these states. The IMCT will then issue necessary directions to State Authorities for its redressal & submit their report to Central Govt in larger interest of general public.

In a communication to state governments, the home ministry said there have been several incidents of violence against COVID-19 frontline healthcare professionals, complete violation of social distancing norms and movement of vehicles in urban areas. These should be stopped, it said. In India, the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 543 and the number of cases climbed to 17,265 in the country on Monday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 20, 2020 02:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).