Mumbai's Crowd Vs Deserted Nagpur: Two Sides Of Maharashtra As Govt Imposes New COVID Curbs
As the second wave of Covid-19 infections show no signs of ebbing in Maharashtra, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government has announced fresh curbs amidst rising COVID-19 cases in the state, on Tuesday.
The announcement comes on the day Maharashtra reported as many as 15,051 fresh COVID-19 cases pushing the total number of cases to 23,29,464. The state logged over 15,000 new infections daily for four straight days.
New COVID restrictions
The state government has put a cap of 50 people in place for weddings, while all other public gatherings ¨C social, cultural, political and religious ¨C have been completely banned.In addition, not more than 20 people will be allowed at funerals.?
According to the new guidelines issued, all restaurants, hotels and cinema halls have been ordered to operate at half the capacity.Nobody will be allowed inside these establishments without wearing a mask and a temperature check, the state government said in a notification.
However, the 50 percent capacity rule will not apply to offices dealing with health and other essential services. As far as possible, employees should be asked to work from home, the state notification said.
Nagpur vs Mumbai
On Monday morning, heavy police was deployed across Nagpur as the week-long complete lockdown in the city began. Authorities claimed strict action will be taken against those who flout COVID rules in the city. On the contrary, a huge crowd was seen at Dadar Market, Mumbai the same morning, where people were seen flouting social distancing norms. Following which the city¡¯s Mayor had instructed the G Northward to take strict action against vendors at the market premise.
In the current wave, however, Nagpur has, for the last few days, been reporting more cases than even Mumbai. On Monday, for example, the district recorded 1,933 new infections, while Mumbai had a little over 1,700.?
On Sunday, Maharashtra recorded this year¡¯s highest one-day spike of 16,620 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the overall caseload to 23,14,413, while 50 deaths pushed the toll to 52,861, the health department said. In the last two days, the daily case count of the state was above 15,000, which crossed the 16,000-mark on Sunday. Mumbai reported 3,676 cases followed by Nashik- 2,776, Pune- 3,609, Nagpur- 1,860, Latur- 914, Aurangabad- 1,289, Kolhapur- 106.
Govt gets tough on violators?
In the case of home isolation, the patient must inform local authorities about the medical professional under whose supervision he or she is.?A board will be put up on the door for 14 days indicating the presence of COVID-19 patient at the location. Patients will be stamped "home quarantine" on the hand.If patients violate these norms, they will be shifted to COVID care centres.
Management bodies of all religious places have been asked to decide and declare the maximum number of visitors per hour they will allow, depending on the availability of space for movement and gathering with proper distancing.Violation shall also attract penalties under the Disaster Act for the owner of premises. The property shall also have to remain closed till the period the COVID-19 pandemic stays notified as a disaster by the central government, the guidelines stated.
