Mumbai Imposes 5 PM-5 AM Curb, Other New Year Restrictions Due To Omicron Cases Surge
Beaches, open grounds, sea faces, promenades, parks and other public places will be off-limits to people in Mumbai between 5 pm and 5 am till January 15 given the massive spike in coronavirus cases, Mumbai Police said in an order on New Year's Eve.
DCP (operations) S Chaitanya issued the order, which came into force from 1 pm on Friday.? ?
What's allowed, what's not
Large gatherings also stand banned under the order which came into force from 1 pm on Friday and will remain till January 15, unless withdrawn earlier, DCP Chaitanya said.
"The city continues to be threatened with COVID-19 pandemic in light of the increase in cases and emergence of the new Omicron variant," the order said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government had extended Section 144 (a section that bans all public gatherings) in Mumbai till January 7, 2022.
With this, all New Year¡¯s celebrations, parties in any closed and open space including hotels, bars, restaurants, pubs, resorts and clubs are prohibited from December 30 till January 7.?However, the restaurants and pubs will continue to operate during regular hours of business at 50% capacity.
Other restrictions
Listing out other restrictions, the police official said that the maximum number of attendees shall be restricted to 50 persons in case of marriages, whether in enclosed spaces or open to sky spaces. In case of last rites, the maximum number of attendees shall be restricted to 20 persons.
The maximum capacity of social, cultural, political or religious gatherings or programs, whether in enclosed or open spaces, will also be the same. Any person found violating any curbs will be punishable under section 188 of IPC in addition to Epidemic Diseases Act and National Disaster Management Act.
Covid situation in Maharashtra
The development comes as India¡¯s Omicron tally crossed 900 on Wednesday, and Maharashtra has the highest number of cases. Separately, Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat reported a big spike in fresh COVID-19 cases (all variants), their highest since May-June 2021.
On Thursday, Maharashtra reported 5,368 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, 37 per cent higher than the day before. Of them, 198 were Omicron. Mumbai too saw a massive 46 per cent jump with 3,671 infections. At 190, the city also registered most of the state's new Omicron patients.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had met the state's Covid task force. One of the key discussions at the high-level meeting was on the new variant that is believed to be driving up the infections in the state, which has the highest overall cases in the country.
So far, 450 patients affected by Omicron have been registered by the state. India has logged over 960 cases of the new variant.India's financial capital has seen a five-fold increase over the last week in the daily surge in Covid cases - the city logged 683 infections last Friday.
