Bombay:
People in Mumbai will not be allowed to visit beaches, open grounds, seascapes, boardwalks, parks and similar public places between 5pm and 5am until Jan. 15, given the huge spike in coronavirus cases, Mumbai police said in an order issued on New Year’s Day. evening.
Large gatherings are also banned under the order, which came into effect from 1 p.m. Friday and will remain until Jan. 15 unless revoked earlier, senior police officer S Chaitanya said.
“The city continues to be threatened with a COVID-19 pandemic in light of the increase in cases and the emergence of the new Omicron variant,” the order said.
The ban order has been issued to prevent danger to people’s life, health and safety and to contain the transmission of the virus, it added.
The authorities had banned all large gatherings before the New Year.
Maharashtra has seen 198 new cases of Omicron amid fears of a third Covid wave as it registered 5,368 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, 37 percent more than the day before. The new variant has been labeled “highly contagious” by experts.
Mumbai also saw another huge increase with 3,671 infections – 46 percent higher than yesterday. In 190 cases, the city also recorded the state’s most fresh Omicron patients.
On Thursday afternoon, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met with the state’s Covid task force. One of the main discussions at the high-level meeting was about the new variant believed to exacerbate infections in the state, which has the highest number of cases in the country (66,65,386).
So far 450 patients with Omicron have been registered by the state. India has registered more than 960 cases of the new variant.
India’s financial capital has increased fivefold in the past week in the daily increase in Covid cases – the city registered 683 infections last Friday.
Fearing another wave of coronavirus, the city’s public body – the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation – has reactivated its district-level war rooms to deal with the rising number of cases.
These war rooms are set up in all 24 wards to manage hospitalizations, oxygen and drug requirements, and vaccination. The war rooms – which follow the “test, trace and treat” strategy – also monitor patients in their home isolation.
While the number of cases has risen, the Mumbai City Council has said that more than 90 percent of cases are asymptomatic. Despite a ban on large gatherings ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations, the streets still witness huge crowds.
Meanwhile, the central government has said it is ready to tackle the spike and there is “no need to panic”.
Delhi, Gurgaon, Kolkata and Bengaluru are among the other major cities that have witnessed a surge in infections in the past week.