All Mumbai beaches to stay shut till April 30: BMC

I n addition to the state government’s guidelines on lockdown, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday ordered that all beaches in the city shall remain shut till April 30

I n addition to the state government’s guidelines on lockdown, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday ordered that all beaches in the city shall remain shut till April 30. The BMC chief also reiterated that every housing society with more than five cases shall be declared a micro-containment zone, and a police personnel shall be deployed outside the gate of the society.

HT Image

According to the circular issued by the BMC, every society being declared as a micro containment zone will have to display a board at the gate of their society and have to deny entry to visitors. Supply of essentials and from that of e-commerce will not be restricted, however, the society will have to develop a mechanism to ensure delivery to the individual flat owner. The BMC has also stated that housing societies that violate the rule of micro-containment zones will have to pay a fine of ₹10,000 on first instance and ₹20,000 on subsequent instances.

On Tuesday, the city reported 10,040 cases and 32 deaths, taking the tally to 472,600 and toll to 11,832. The city’s recovery rate is 80% with 380,398 recoveries, and mortality rate at 2.50%. There are 79,368 active cases in the city. Also, on Tuesday, 50,594 citizens were vaccinated. Of these, 35,978 were citizens between the age of 45-59, 12,260 were senior citizens above the age of 60 years, followed by 1,803 frontline workers and 553 health care workers.

Further, the BMC has also directed private laboratories to ensure 24-hour turnaround time for declaring results of Covid-19 positive patients, further asking laboratories to ensure the reports shall be first given to the BMC and to the patient on subsequent day. The BMC chief has also directed private hospitals to undertake tests using rapid antigen kits only on symptomatic patients, and also ensure that no tests are done using the rapid antigen kits without taking permission from the BMC.

In a separate order issued on Tuesday, the BMC has also revised the standard operating procedures (SOP) to handle passengers arriving from the UK, Brazil, Europe, South Africa and Middle-East. Passengers arriving from these countries are quarantined in hotels for seven days, however, there have been instances where such passengers go missing from hotels. Hence, the BMC has revised guidelines, making it mandatory for their officers to visit the hotels twice during the stay of a particular passenger and maintain a weekly report of such visits.

Chahal said, “Tuesday was the first day of lockdown, and I am sure that if citizens will follow Covid-19 guidelines, cases will start coming down in the city.”

Meanwhile, amid the rising need for beds in hospitals in the backdrop of cases increasing in the city, the BMC on Tuesday once again appealed to citizens to call 1916 or ward control room for bed allotment rather than visiting making rounds to every hospital. According to BMC’s dashboard, of the total 17,178 beds, 4,130 beds are vacant.