Commuters rush to board a suburban train at CSMT station amid coronavirus pandemic in Mumbai. (FILE)
Mumbai lockdown news: Amid a surge in coronavirus cases in Mumbai, the Maharashtra government is considering imposing stringent restrictions in the city to flatten the curve. Mayor Kishori Pednekar has dropped hints about a possible lockdown in the city if situation worsens. Pednekar said that measures to tackle the surge is in full-swing and the number of beds has been increased to 25,000 .
She said that hotels could be asked to operate at 50 per cent of the seating capacity and religious places might be shut completely as people do not listen. Private offices could be asked to operate in two shifts.
"There may be stringent restrictions from April 2 - hotels with 50 per cent capacity, religious places may be completely closed. Similarly, theatres, cinemas all can be closed. Entry of passengers other than essential service staff may be stopped once again in local trains," she said.
Notably, the state government has already imposed a night curfew across the state to curb the spread of infection. There are 80 active containment zones in Mumbai, where 650 buildings have been sealed to curb the spread of the virus.
Earlier on Thursday, Mumbai reported 8,646 new coronavirus cases, its highest one-day rise since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. This took the city's overall caseload to 4,23,360. The death of 18 patients during the day, the highest single-day figure since the first week of December last year, took the fatality count to 11,704.
The infection growth rate has worsened to 1.38 per cent and the doubling rate has dropped to 49 days. Mumbai's COVID-19 recovery rate is now 84 per cent.
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