E-Paper
Mumbai's daily Covid-19 case tally nears 2k-mark, Maharashtra sees 17,864 cases
In Mumbai, 15,263 people are actively infected with Covid-19, BMC data revealed. The civic body has asked schools falling under its jurisdiction to switch back to online classes from March 17.
A day after Mumbai's daily infection tally dropped to 1,712, the city on Tuesday again recorded as many cases as 1,922 — the second-highest single-day spike of the year. According to the bulletin of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 246 buildings in the city are sealed as there are more than five positive cases in these buildings, while 34 areas have been identified as containment zones. On March 14, the city recorded its highest spike of the year with 1,963 fresh infections.
The BMC has asked schools under its jurisdiction to switch to online classes from March 17.
Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded a spike of 17,864 fresh Civid-19 infection, which is an increase of over 2,000 cases recorded on Monday when the state reported 15,051 new cases. The state reported 87 new deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the overall toll to 52,996.The Nagpur district added 2,587 fresh infections in the last 24 hours after a strict lockdown was imposed in the district on March 15.
The central team which probed into the sudden spike of Maharashtra cases has, in its report, pointed out massive laxity in tracking and testing of cases. Based on the report, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote a letter to the state, asking it to plan for "a worst-case scenario with sufficient lead time".
As several districts of Maharashtra are already under restrictions and the state government is balking at imposing statewide restrictions, cinema halls, hotels, restaurants have been given a warning. Seating arrangement in theatres, hotels has again been capped at 50 per cent of the total capacity.
Despite this continuous spike in the number of cases, instances of social distancing rules being flouted abound in Mumbai and elsewhere. For example, a massive crowd was reported in Mumbai's Dadar market on Tuesday. On the first day of the week-long lockdown in Nagpur , hundreds were fined for violating social distancing norms.
The central team found similar instances and observed that the administration did not trace the high-risk contacts of one infected person with due diligence which resulted in the sudden surge.
