Mumbai mayor warns of lockdown if people ignore Covid-19 guidelines

Following a surge in Covid-19 cases, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday warned of a lockdown if people ignore guidelines.

Mumbai:Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday warned of a lockdown if people ignore guidelines and surge in COVID-19 cases continues.

"It's a matter of concern. Most people travelling in trains don't wear masks. People must take precautions else we'd head towards another lockdown. Whether lockdown will be implemented again, is in the hands of people," she said.

The state had reported a dip in the number of Covid cases in the last three to four months. It fluctuated between 2,000 to 2,500 cases daily. However, in recent weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases increased drastically. On February 14, after a gap of several days, the tally of new cases has risen to over 4000.

Many health experts have opined that the carefree attitude of citizens not to wear the mask is the real cause for the increase of cases. They have appealed to citizens to wear mask and maintain social distancing. State task force has advised the state government to augment tracing and testing.

Dr Sanjay Londhe, member of Maharashtra Ayush task force said that it was expected that Covid cases would decline and it could be brought under control to two-digit in Mumbai and three-digit in the state. A virus cannot be destroyed completely and the pandemic has not yet ended. But people think that the pandemic is over and they are venturing out more vigorously, overcrowding everywhere now. Adversely, they have quit wearing masks. While travelling on public transport, it is impossible to maintain social distancing, but people can wear masks. Even if every Indian is vaccinated, Covid-19 would still persist, said Londhe. He appealed to citizens to wear mask always and give up carefree attitude.

3365 new cases reported on Monday

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope informed that 3,365 patients were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday. With this, the tally of Coronavirus patients has increased to 20,67,643. With the death of 23 patients yesterday, the toll has reached 51,552. The rate of recovery is 95.7 per cent while the rate of mortality is 2.49 per cent. Yesterday, 3105 patients were discharged from hospitals. With this, the number of patients recovered has amounted to 19,78,708.

Out of the 1, 53,59,026 samples tested, 20, 67, 643 were found to be positive. At present, 1, 74,704 patients are under home quarantine, out of which, 35, 201 are active cases.

Number of cases increase to 4,000

After a gap of two months, the number of new cases showed an increasing trend. There were 4268 patients on December 11, 4269 on December 12 and 4304 on December 16. Then a dip was seen as the number was hovering between 2,000 to 3,000. But, yesterday, the number turned out to be 4092 on a single day.

In March 2020, first Covid-19 patient was found in Pune.

The number continued to increase since April despite imposing strict lockdown. After some months, the outbreak was so severe that, 15,000 patients were diagnosed with Covid-19 in a day. In the first week of September, tally crossed the figure of 23,000.

Then, the health department focused on the three-way formula, tracing-testing-treatment. As a result, the number of daily patients dipped from 2000 to 2300. But, the graph is again showing ascending trend and 3000 and 4000 new cases have been found in a day since last week. The recovery rate has gone up to 96 per cent.