Maharashtra imposes night curfew under new COVID guidelines, imposes tavel regulations for travellers from Dubai

The Maharashtra government on Friday introduced new COVID 19 restrictions in the state, including the reinstatement of night curfews starting Friday midnight.

Maharashtra:The state government on Friday introduced new COVID 19 restrictions in the state, including the reinstatement of night curfews starting Friday midnight.

The guidelines, which come after Chief Minister Udhdhav Thackeray held a review meeting with the COVID 19 task force on Thursday night, will be seeing multiple restrictions pertaining to public gatherings as well as operations of institutions come into place.

The new guidelines prohibit gatherings of more than five persons between 9 pm and 6 am in public places across the state.

It has also disallowed the gathering of more than 100 people in indoor weddings, and set a ceiling of 250 people when it comes to outdoor weddings.

The guidelines allow social institutions such as gyms, spas, hotels, theaters and cinema halls to operate with 50% capacity.

"For other social, political, religious events also the number of attendees should not be more than 100 and in open space, this number should not be more than 250 or 25% of the capacity of the space whichever is less", the government order said.

Taking into account the high rate of spread of the new Omicron variant of COVID 19, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said on Friday it is essential to put in place certain restrictions at present and consider further restrictions in future.

The CM further urged citizens to follow health regulations and use masks in public places.

The order further said that any other type of social, political or religious function, too, would come under the 100 and 250 people ceilings, or 25% of the capacity of the space, whichever was less among the two.

The CM noted that the currently imposed restrictions were preliminary in nature, and depending on the severity of infection, more stringent measures might be imposed in the future.

The Bombay Municipal Corporation, meanwhile, has brought in travel regulations for those coming to Mumbai from or via Dubai.

The restrictions will see travellers from Dubai undergo seven days of home quarantine without RT-PCR tests, which will be conducted after seven days. They will, furthermore, be banned from using public transport.

In case of incoming travellers being from outside Mumbai, the District Collector will be arranging for special trains to transport them to their desired destination.

Maharashtra has seen an uptick of more than 1,000 COVID cases in the last two days.

With agency inputs