‘If citizens don’t follow norms, city might head towards lockdown’

MUMBAI: Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday cautioned citizens that if Covid-19 protocol is not followed and the number of cases reported daily keeps rising, Mumbai could see another lockdown.

Pednekar was speaking to reporters at the inauguration of Byculla zoo’s social media accounts. She said that while there had been deliberations on reopening schools in the city, the authorities may rethink this since the number of cases of Covid-19 in Mumbai have been rising of late.

“An increase in the number of cases is witnessed in the city and if in this scenario citizens don’t take precautions, we will have to go towards lockdown. There is no other option if citizens do not take precautions. Hence, face masks, sanitising and social distancing are things we should continue to follow,” said Pednekar on Tuesday. “Citizens have to take precautions and even almost a year after the Covid-19 outbreak, I see many not taking precautions. It is because of this carelessness that we might have a scenario where the state government might consider another lockdown for the city.”

Since local train services resumed for limited hours for the general public on February 1, there has been a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases reported daily in Mumbai. Last week, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wrote to the University of Mumbai and said it would decide on reopening colleges in the city after monitoring the situation till February 22. On Monday, BMC had said a review meeting would be held on February 22 to decide on further relaxations or restrictions in the city.

Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani had earlier told HT, “Daily cases being reported has increased and one of the reasons can be local trains, but there are other factors too involved here. With unlocking, social mingling has increased, and also citizens have stopped practicing Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.”