Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 22 (ANI): Maharashtra Government has opened all the religious places in the State, however, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday appealed to the public not to overcrowd any place and follow COVID-19 safety norms.

"We have opened all religious places in the state but my appeal to the public is not to overcrowd them," said CM Thackeray.

"We have celebrated all the festivals with patience so far. I had urged everyone to take all the precautions during Diwali celebrations as well and everybody obeyed it. I would like to thank everyone for that. Even during Chhath Puja celebrations, people behaved patiently. In Maharashtra, we are able to control the COVID-19 situation in many ways but we will have to avoid visiting crowded places," he added.

Maharashtra Chief Minister further stated that he is a bit upset with the citizens as after Diwali the number of COVID-19 cases in the state have started rising again.

"Lockdown has been imposed in various parts of the world and the number of cases is also increasing in Delhi. I would like to appeal to everyone to avoid going to crowded places. We all are hearing nowadays that vaccine will be arriving soon in India but currently we do not have any vaccine so we have to take preventive measures. After completing five years, if I will be asked what work did I do, I don't want to say that I only imposed lockdowns," said Thackeray.

Maharashtra has reported 5,753 new COVID-19 cases, 4,060 recoveries and 50 deaths. The total number of cases in the state is 17,80,208. There are 81,512 active cases in the state and 16,51,064 patients have recovered so far. The death toll is at 46,623. (ANI)