CITY MAY NOT SEE FURTHER UNLOCK YET

MUMBAI: With Covid-19 cases on the rise in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has yet not decided on any further relaxations in the city.

Several factors, including restarting local train services for all, increased mingling among groups and non-compliance of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, are some of the reasons for increase in daily cases in the past five days.

According to BMC, a decision for further relaxation and unlocking will be taken on February 22 after monitoring the situation.

On whether timing for the general public for travelling in local trains will be increased, BMC additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said, “We are not taking any decision on the same yet. We will monitor the situation until February 22 first.”

The city has been reporting over 500 cases since February 10, and on Sunday, the city reported 645 Covid-19 cases and four deaths on Sunday. Overall, the city has reported 314,076 Covid-19 cases and 11,419 deaths. Its recovery rate is 94% and mortality rate is 3.63%.

The increase in cases has come ten days after local train service was restarted for the general public on February 1. Now, general public can travel from the first train of the day up to 7 am, 12 -4 pm and later, from 9 pm till the last train. In the past two weeks, at least 15 million citizens have used the local train services.

Last week, the BMC also wrote to Mumbai University on how it will monitor the situation till February 22 before allowing colleges to reopen in the city. This, as the Maharashtra government had allowed reopening of colleges from February 15.

City physician Dr Siddarth Paliwal said, “We might notice a spike in the number of cases owing to gradual reopening and unlocking, but this does not mean we go on shutting the city again.”

Mumbai reported 493 cases on Monday, followed by three deaths. This took the city’s tally to 314,569 and toll to 11,422. The city’s recovery stands at 298,170 (94.78%) and mortality rate is 3.63%.