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Maharashtra allows cinema halls, multiplexes to reopen at 50% capacity from today
After being shut for around eight months owing to Covid-19, cinema halls, theatres, multiplexes and drama theatres are set to reopen in Maharashtra from today (November
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After being shut for around eight months owing to Covid-19, cinema halls, theatres, multiplexes and drama theatres are set to reopen in Maharashtra from today (November 5) as the state on Wednesday decided to allow them to restart operations at 50% occupancy.
The government has also allowed yoga centres and indoor sports such as badminton, tennis, squash, among others, to reopen, besides the use of swimming pools, but only for the training of state, national and international level sportspersons, from today.
As the state government has decided to give further relaxations, Maharashtra’s Covid-19 case count came close to 1.7 million after 5,505 cases were recorded on Wednesday, pushing the count to 1,698,198.
A drop in active cases was maintained as it reached 112,912, — 6.64% of the total. The toll reached 44,548 as 125 casualties were reported in the past 24 hours, health officials said.
“Cinema halls, theatres, multiplexes and drama theatres will be allowed to open with 50% capacity in areas outside containment zones only with effect from November 5. No outside eatables will be allowed inside. The standard operating procedure will be issued by the culture affairs department and local authorities,” stated the notification issued by chief secretary Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday
“All indoor sports like badminton, tennis, squash, indoor shooting ranges etc. will be allowed with physical distancing and sanitation measures with effect from November 5,” it adds.
“Yoga institutes outside containment zones will be allowed to function from November 5. The SOP for the same will be issued by the public health department,” said the notification.
Maharashtra has continued the trend of low Covid-19 cases for over a month. It was the 18th consecutive day when daily cases recorded were fewer than 10,000 However, the concern for a rise in cases by November-end still persists due to festivals and winter.
Mumbai continued to record the highest cases in the state with 983 fresh infections on Wednesday. Its case count reached 260,840. The number of active cases in the city also reduced to 16,756. The city’s toll also reached 10,352 after 29 casualties were reported.
Pune district contributed the second-highest infections in the daily caseload as it recorded 304 cases, taking its tally to 78,177.
Pune city recorded 300 cases, third-highest number of cases, pushing its case count to 173,216.
Along with a trend of fewer Covid-19 cases, the state has recorded a slight drop in Covid-19 deaths. In the past four days, 462 fatalities were reported, against 1,422 casualties reported in the first four days in October, revealed the figures issued by the state health department.
However, the case fatality rate (CFR) is yet to come down. It has maintained second position after Punjab in the country with 2.62%. The CFR of Punjab was 3.15% (with 4,245 deaths) till Tuesday, according to the information shared by the state medical education department.
The state has completed 9,185,838 Covid-19 tests, with 65,323 conducted on Wednesday. The positivity rate for the day was recorded at 8.42% against the overall positivity rate of the state that stood at 18.49%.
The number of recovered patients reached 1,540,005 with 8,728 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate was recorded at 90.68%.
The state government is yet to open schools and colleges, swimming pools for general public, places of worship, local trains for general public in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), cultural, political, religious, academic congregations and sporting and entertainment events.
