Jackie Shroff, Pooja Bedi, Sumeet Vyas REACT To Warnings Of Another Lockdown In Mumbai Amid Rise In COVID-19 Cases

It has been over a year since the world has been battling with the Coronavirus pandemic. While there was a strict nationwide lockdown last year, the COVID restrictions were gradually relaxed. However, that doesn’t mean the pandemic has ended. Yet we see people resume their normal life, going about flouting COVID-19 protocols. A few days ago, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar warned of another lockdown if COVID-19 norms aren’t properly followed. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that he would review the situation again in the next eight days and then decide on a lockdown. Now, Jackie Shroff, Pooja Bedi, Sumeet Vyas, and others react to the situation.

While speaking to ETimes, Jackie Shroff said, “What can I say about people who're being callous? Who will listen to me? If you value your life, you must wear a mask.” He added that his fans ask him to remove his mask, but when he refuses, they feel offended. Pooja Bedi however feels that the hysteria around Coronavirus is disproportionate. “The infection rate makes no difference, the death rate does. India, with a population of 1.3 billion has seen 156K deaths due to covid and its associated co-morbidities. Tuberculosis kills almost 500K (over 3 times more than Covid) yearly in India and we never locked down or wore masks or put the economy at a standstill,” she said. She said that the loss of jobs amid the pandemic, lack of exercise, stress and other such factors have caused much more damage than COVID-19 has.

Sumeet Vyas feels that people have become very casual about the pandemic. While speaking to ETimes, he said that it is extremely irresponsible and foolish of people who have mild fever and flu-like symptoms to venture out without testing for COVID-19, as they are putting others’ lives in danger.

Scam 1992 actor Pratik Gandhi also talked about those going out in public places without their facemasks and how irresponsible it is. While he said that everyone has to begin working sometime, people have to understand basics of ‘new normal’ and take precautions.