As the number of cases of coronavirus jumped beyond 500 in Maharashtra, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday alerted people about ‘wrong messages’ about COVID-19 on social media platforms.
The CM warned of stringent action against those who spread inflammatory content and threatening social harmony. The warning came amid reports that several videos have been doing the rounds on WhatsApp, TikTok and Twitter.
Like Coronavirus there is another virus that is emerging which is threatening social harmony, the virus of fake news & communal hatred.
— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) April 4, 2020
‘Like COVID-19 virus, there is a communal virus too. I am warning those who are spreading wrong messages to citizens and uploading such videos even for the sake of fun. This COVID-19 virus sees no religion,’ Uddhav Thackeray said on a Facebook Live.
The chief minister also said that the decision whether the 21-day lockdown will be extended in the state will depend upon its people and how they follow the government’s directives.
Maharashtra is the one of country’s worst-affected state and has reported 47 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. With this, the total number of cases in the state has touched 537.
Thackeray also said that his government has identified people from the state who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi and placed them under quarantine.
‘The names of those who attended the Delhi event are in our records and all the participants have been traced,’ he said. ‘They have been isolated and quarantined in government facilities.’
The CM said, unlike Delhi, Maharashtra had denied permission for the Tablighi Jamaat event.
‘We didn’t let what happened in Delhi happen in Maharashtra,’ he said. ‘The event was permitted earlier, but later looking at the situation we denied permission.’
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