Mumbai: People in Mumbai won’t be allowed to visit beaches, open grounds, sea faces, promenades, parks and similar public places between 5 pm and 5 am till January 15 given the massive spike in coronavirus cases, Mumbai Police said in an order on New Year’s Eve.
Large gatherings also stand banned under the order which came into force from 1 pm on Friday and will remain till January 15, unless withdrawn earlier, senior police officer S Chaitanya said.
“The city continues to be threatened with COVID-19 pandemic in light of the increase in cases and emergence of the new Omicron variant,” the order said.
The prohibitory order was issued to prevent danger to human life, health and safety and to curb transmission of the virus, it added.
Authorities had banned all large gatherings ahead of the New Year.
Maharashtra has seen 198 fresh Omicron cases amid fears over a third Covid wave as it logged 5,368 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, 37 per cent higher than the day before. The new variant has been labelled as “highly infectious” by experts.
Mumbai too saw a massive surge yet again with 3,671 infections – 46 per cent higher compared to yesterday. At 190 cases, the city also registered most of the state’s fresh Omicron patients.
On Thursday afternoon, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met the state’s Covid task force. One of the key discussions at the high-level meeting was on the new variant that is believed to be driving up the infections in the state, which has the highest overall cases in the country (66,65,386).
So far, 450 patients affected by Omicron have been registered by the state. India has logged over 960 cases of the new variant.
India’s financial capital has seen a five-fold increase over the last week in the daily surge in Covid cases – the city logged 683 infections last Friday.
Fearing a fresh coronavirus wave, the city’s civic body – the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation – has reactivated its ward-level war rooms to tackle the increasing number of cases.
These war rooms are set up in all 24 wards to manage hospital admissions, oxygen and medicine requirements and vaccination as well. The war rooms – that follow the “test, trace and treat” strategy – also keep a track of patients isolated at their homes.
While cases have been rising, the Mumbai civic body has said, more than 90 per cent of the cases are asymptomatic. Despite a ban on large gatherings ahead of the New Year’s celebrations, the streets are still witnessing huge crowds.
Meanwhile, the central government has said it is prepared to tackle the spike and
Delhi, Gurgaon, Kolkata, and Bengaluru are among the other big cities that have witnessed an uptick in infections over the last week.
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