Mumbai: Wards where COVID-19 cases rise face restrictions

People wait to get vaccinated at Nair hospital on Thursday. Pics/Ashish Raje

With the state seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases and Nagpur facing a lockdown, city administrators appear to be still contemplating taking the big step for the financial capital of the country. While the civic body is open to a lockdown, the decision will depend on the pattern of cases. If a high number of cases is observed in a particular ward, only that ward will be put under lockdown.

But if the city sees a surge across areas, then a total lockdown may be implemented.

BMC workers sanitise their hands after conducting antigen tests at Dadar station on Thursday

The civic body is not recommending the closing of any local train services and as of now, wants to focus on controlling the numbers.

Currently, the increase in cases is nearly equal across the 24 wards, thus not putting too much pressure on the civic body. "For now, about 60 to 70-odd cases on an average are recorded every day in a majority of the wards. There are some wards where the numbers are fewer, but the numbers are largely equally distributed. If a particular ward notices an exceptional increase and the trend continues, we will make the area a containment zone."

Civic workers check the temperature of a passenger at Dadar station

To avoid a lockdown, the BMC is recommending citizens to step out only when necessary. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, "If the spike in cases is high across the city, we will have to implement a lockdown. To avoid this, we want people to act responsibly."

Civic officials are also of the view that local train services are not solely responsible for the increase in cases. Kakani said, "Mainly the lower-class, lower-middle-class and the middle-class travel in trains. There is a higher prevalence of antibodies among them and thus we are assuming that local services are not the only contributors to the increase. It may be responsible only to an extent, but not solely responsible. Thus shutting of services is not necessary for now. But we are monitoring the situation closely and nothing is out of consideration."

70
Approx. no. of daily cases in most wards