Curbs eased in Mumbai, Maharashtra cities from today

Most of Maharashtra’s 10 major cities, such as Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Aurangbad and Nagpur, will see a slight relaxation in lockdown curbs from Tuesday after the state government’s notification issued on Sunday

Most of Maharashtra’s 10 major cities, such as Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Aurangbad and Nagpur, will see a slight relaxation in lockdown curbs from Tuesday after the state government’s notification issued on Sunday. Besides these cities, around 20 districts will see curbs relaxed as their positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds has improved over the past few days. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, while taking a serious note of the traffic jams on arterial roads in Mumbai, however, warned of imposing curbs again if the congestion on the city’s roads continued.

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Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Monday recorded 15,077 Covid-19 cases. bringing the total in May to 1,141,447. April saw 1,794,406 cases. After the stricter curbs of more than four weeks, the state issued a notification on Sunday, announcing a few relaxations in districts that have a Covid-19 testing positivity rate of less than 10% and the occupancy of oxygen beds is less than 40%. A total of 22 districts have their positivity rate at less than 10%, but five to six of them account for over 40%, with respect to oxygen-bed occupancy.

As a result, 20 districts would be able to implement the relaxations announced on Sunday.

The state government has classified 10 cities with more than 1 million population as a unit to ensure that the high positivity and oxygen bed occupancy of the district does not affect them. This means if the Pune district’s positivity rate is more than 10%, it would not prohibit Pune city from rolling out relaxations if the city fit the criterion.

“Most of the 10 cities enlisted will be eligible for relaxations and they have issued their orders accordingly. The idea was to safeguard the urban areas, which have less positivity rate from the rural parts of districts, with high rate. But in smaller cities, the district’s rate is applicable, because of the high mobility from city to rural parties and vice versa. In big cities, municipal corporations have mechanisms to contain the spread from rural areas,” said an official from Mantralaya.

He said that barring Panvel, all other eight municipal corporations in MMR are eligible for the relaxations. Sindhudurg in Konkan is the only district which will have stricter curbs and would not be able to allow inter-district travel.

State government has allowed to extend the timings of operation of the essential sector establishments to 7 to 2pm, from existing 7 to 11am. The shops and establishments in non-essential sectors have been allowed to operate in the same time, but the powers to decide it have been given to local authorities. The attendance in the government offices has been increased to 25% from 15%. The new orders will come into force from Tuesday morning and will remain in force till 7 am on June 15.

Rajesh Narvekar, collector, Thane, said that the district’s positivity rate is below 10% and the oxygen bed occupancy is 22%. “Entire district is eligible for the relaxations but the three municipal corporations (Thane, KDMC and Navi Mumbai) will issue their orders, while our order for relaxation will be applicable to two smaller municipal corporations - Mira-Bhayander, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, rural areas, two municipal councils,” he said.

Panvel municipal commissioner Sudhakar Deshmukh said that though their positivity rate is less than 10% , the oxygen bed occupancy is little more than 40% because of patients coming from rural areas. “That is the reason we would not be able to relax the curbs,” he said.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, however, on Monday warned the people from Mumbai to brace for stricter curbs if the crowding on roads continues. “Corona has not gone yet. The threat of the pandemic is not over. The lockdown restrictions have not been lifted because of it, but there are traffic jams on arterial roads and it is critical. If this continues, we would not even continue with the relaxations which have been given now. We will be left with no other option to go for re-imposing stricter norms,” he said at a function at the international airport.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said he was surprised by the traffic jams on Monday morning. “As I was arriving for this programme, I faced traffic jams. The Covid-19 is still there,” said Pawar.

Meanwhile, according to Subhash Salunke, adviser to the government of Maharashtra on Covid-19 management, various factors contributed to the decline. “The lockdown played an important role in the decline and even the urban population was careful,” said Salunke. He attributed the rise in rural areas to the casual attitude of the people. “The rural population is still not adhering to Covid-19-appropriate behaviour, like wearing masks or maintaining social distance. The enforcement of lockdown is poor,” said Salunke.

Dr Ishwar Gilada, secretary-general, Organised Medicine Academic Guild, blamed the administration for the neglect in the rural belt. “The local administration in places like Amravati, Konkan, Satara and Sangli focussed on only urban areas. In these places, there were hardly any proper testing or counselling facilities for patients. The administration was caught unawares as they felt like the first wave, it will hardly impact the rural areas,” said Gilada.

There were 184 deaths on Monday, which took the toll to 95,344. The total number of tests conducted on Monday were 1,93,446, while the number of recoveries were 33,000. He credited the government for their efforts to bring down the numbers especially in urban pockets.

Mumbai recorded 666 cases with 29 deaths. The state currently has 2,53,367 active cases, while the total number of people affected by Covid-19 till date has reached 57,46,892. There are currently 2,53,367 active patients across the state, of which Pune tops with 36,563 patients, followed by Mumbai with 24,850 active patients.

The toll has now reached 95,344 with Mumbai leading with 14,826 deaths, followed by Pune with 12,507. On Sunday, BJP legislator Mahesh Landge was said to have celebrated his daughter’s wedding, disregarding Covid-19 norms The police has registered a case against him for violating the norms. The Vasai-Virar administration in order to control the virus has now ramped up its testing by setting camps in places like outside the railway stations and randomly testing the citizens.