‘These educated morons….’: Twitter furious after people in Nagpur exercise on streets to ‘build immunity system’ to fight coronavirus

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday termed the situation in the state as ‘worrisome’. He said, “The situation in Maharashtra isn’t critical, but certainly worrisome.”

He asked people to not step out of their homes and sought their cooperation for the ongoing ‘war against virus’ that has created a pandemic, killing 8,978 people worldwide and infected 219,702.

“Like in the days of the (1971) India-Pakistan War, the siren has been sounded. We all have to be alert and fight this global war. This virus is spreading step-by-step and Maharashtra has the highest number of affected,” Thackeray said.

However, people are unperturbed about the catastrophic situation that might arise if immediate preventive measures are not taken.

On Thursday morning, people in Nagpur gathered on the streets to exercise, as the gyms in the city are shut down due to the pandemic. A local, Hardeep Bhatia, said, “We are building our immunity system by exercising.”

Twitter users lashed out at these Nagpur residents. “This is insane. Did they not understand meaning of maintaining social distancing,” a user said. While another user said, “Purpose of shutting down gyms was to avoid gathering of people at one place. Wasn’t the ban pointless because now the people are getting gathered on streets.”

Here are some of the Twitter reactions:

Meanwhile in Maharashtra, the total number of people to test positive for coronavirus rose to 47 on Thursday, which is the highest among all the states in the country. While in India, 169 people have been tested positive for COVID-19.