MUMBAI...

Restaurant owners can extend business hours till 10pm, while shopping malls will be open to the public. Further, fully vaccinated citizens will be allowed to travel in suburban trains in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Private offices can function round-the-clock at full strength, while restrictions on people attending weddings have been relaxed.

When the second wave started from the middle of February, the city had 54 active containment zones in slums. This increased to around 80 by the end of April when the pandemic curve was at its peak. However, this number is far less than compared to the first wave. In May last year, over 650 slums were under containment zones where movement of the dwellers were strictly regulated.

“We had two slums under containment zones which have been released. For the first time this year, we don’t have any containment zones,” said Prashant Sapkale, ward officer of K-east.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, nearly 2,800 containment zones in slums have been released in the city. Meanwhile, the city has 30 sealed buildings, with five or more cases which are also referred to as micro containment zones. These are spread across 10 wards, out of 24 wards, with the highest in K-west (Andheri, Jogeshwari).

More than 50% (6,534,460) of Mumbai’s total population of 12,442,373 (as per 2011 census) reside in slum areas, making the inhabitants vulnerable to contracting the infection owing to their poor and unhygienic living conditions. But as the BMC figure shows, non-slums residents were the major contributors of the second wave. “We have conducted ward-wise studies in the second wave which showed that 90% of the cases are from residential buildings. There can be several contributing factors like high sero prevalence in slums as shown in sero surveys,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

The Covid-19 containment proactive strategies not only helped BMC in controlling cases in slums, but their ‘Dharavi model’ also bagged them national fame and appreciation.

Coming to the ease in lockdown, state surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate said people need to take adequate precautions, while facilities are opening up. “The easing is being done to facilitate the economic cycle and all precautions should be taken to curtail the Covid-19 transmission rates. If people let their guard down and don’t adhere to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, then we are in trouble again due to the impending third wave,” he warned. As the state opened up, all shopkeepers and restaurant owners were allowed to function till 4pm only. On August 3, only shopkeepers were allowed to function till 10pm while restaurants were not given any relief. This resulted in anger among the hoteliers who protested to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. Now the state has also extended their timings till 10pm.

Also, those visiting shopping malls will also have to carry the final vaccination certificate,

Private offices whose employees are fully vaccinated have been allowed to keep their offices functional 24X7, but they have to stagger the work hours and keep 25 per cent strength at one time. BMC officials say that in view of the shortage of vaccines, they will allow employees of the shops to work only if they have taken at least on vaccine dose. However the owners should ensure that the employee also takes the second one.