Amid COVID surge, BMC makes masks and gloves mandatory for all home-quarantined patients

Amid a huge surge in coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made the use of masks and gloves mandatory for all home-quarantined patients. In a new set of guidelines issued on Thursday, BMC has also reduced the home quarantine period to 10 days from the existing 14 days.

Mayor Kishori Pednekar also hinted that some restrictions could be imposed in the city from April 2. While speaking to the media, Padnekar said that hotels could be asked to operate at 50 percent of the seating capacity and religious places might be shut completely as "people do not listen".

"Train journey might be restricted to only essential services staff only as in the past," the Mayor said. She also said that malls, theatres may also be shut considering that people don't follow COVID-19 norms.

COVID-19 Cases in Maharashtra 

On Thursday, Maharashtra reported its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 43,183 persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus. This propelled the state's COVID-19 tally to 28,56,163. At present, there are 3,66,533 active cases in the state. With 32,641 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 24,33,368. With Mumbai recording 8646 cases in the day, it remains a major novel coronavirus hotspot in the state. 249 deaths —  60 deaths from Nagpur, 35 from Aurangabad, 18 from Mumbai, 16 each from Nashik and Pune, 15 from Nanded, 10 from Nandurbar, 9 from Ahmednagar, 7 from Beed, 5 from Solapur, 4 each from Raigad, Thane, Latur, Parbhani and Osmanabad, three each from Akola, Hingoli, Sangli, Kolhapur, Jalgaon, Malegaon and Mira Bhayandar, two each from Bhiwandi, Pimpri Chinchwad, Amravati and Wardha and one each from Chandrapur, Bhandara, Jalna, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Panvel, Vasai Virar, and Navi Mumbai were reported on Thursday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 140 occurred in the last 48 hours and 109 in the last week. Until now, a total of 54,898 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

Image: PTI/Unsplash