Covid curbs set to ease by levels for Mumbai

MUMBAI: An all-too-familiar limp back to normalcy is on the cards for Mumbai and other cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan (MMR) region.

From Monday, all shops in the city can open; restaurants can serve customers till 4pm on weekdays; private offices can be reopened with 50% staff, but only till 4pm; and people can go for jogging and to gymnasiums, albeit with certain conditions.

While suburban trains won’t be allowed for the general public, commuters can travel by BEST buses provided there are no standing passengers, a difficult ask during peak hours in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. Manufacturing units can function with 50% of the workforce’s capacity and with travel arrangements for the staff. E-commerce firms will function regularly. Wedding ceremonies can be attended by up to 50 people. Although the state has allowed all women commuters to use local trains, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday restricted the services to medical staff and a few essential sectors.

Following the devastating second Covid-19 wave that forced a lockdown in Maharashtra from April, the government’s fivelevel plan to ease curbs, based on weekly positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds in districts, comes into effect from Monday. The state has classified 35 districts and 11 municipal corporations with more than 1 million population into five categories – level one to five. The degree of relaxation of restrictions has been decided as per the level of severity of Covid-19 in those districts. Level one has the least restrictions, while level five will have the most. Mumbai comes under level three (see box).

“The order and classification of areas are more pragmatic. This fixes responsibility on local administrations — district collectors or municipal corporations — to reduce the spread of the virus and augment infrastructure,” said a state official on the unlock order, issued late on Friday. The new order was issued by relief and rehabilitation secretary Aseem Kumar Gupta, after the state disaster management authority decided so on Thursday.

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The degree of relaxation has been decided as per the level of severity of Covid-19 in those districts. Level 1 has the least restrictions, while level 5 will have the most

The levels for the 11 civic bodies (Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Aurangabad, Vasai-Virar, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, Solapur and Kalyan-Dombivli) will be decided by the local authorities

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According to the guidelines, the situation will be assessed every Thursday by the public health department and the level changes from Monday, after approval from the chief secretary