Mumbai sees 1,600 new Covid cases in last 24 hours

The nation’s financial capital has once again become the hotspot for rising Covid cases. Mumbai city has reported more than 1,600 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, recording the highest single-day spike in months. On Friday, Mumbai’s daily tally crossed the 1,600-mark for the first time in 2021 as the city recorded 1,647 fresh infections.

Maharashtra, too, sustained its surge with 15,817 fresh Covid-19 cases. The state reported 14,317 cases, which was the highest single-day spike till yesterday.

Several districts of the state, including Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Nanded, Parbhani, have imposed restrictions keeping in mind sudden surge in the number of cases.

Night curfew has been imposed in Pune and the timing of hotels and restaurants have been restricted. Nagpur will be going under a strict lockdown from 15 March. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has stated Mumbai has reported most of the positive cases in January and February which were from high rises. The BMC has sealed 947 floors of high rise and residential buildings in the past 10 days to clamp down on the rising number of Covid-19 cases, most of which seem to be emerging from residential buildings and high rises. As per BMC data, there were 2016 active sealed floors on 1 March in Mumbai which stood at 2,957 as on 11 March.

Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola would witness lockdown curbs for the second time. The BMC has denied lockdown in Mumbai. The decision on whether to stop Mumbai local trains for the general public is yet to be taken as it is considered to be one of the main reasons for the spike in Covid cases in Mumbai. “The government would be forced to implement a complete lockdown in some areas if rules were not followed by the people. A decision on hotels and restaurants is to be taken in the next few days,” the Maharashtra Chief Minister said.