Mumbai has seen a huge surge in coronavirus cases this week.
Beaches, open grounds, sea faces, promenades, parks and other public places will be off-limits to people in Mumbai between 5 pm and 5 am till January 15 given the massive spike in coronavirus cases, Mumbai Police said in an order on New Year's Eve.
Here is your 10-point guide to this big story:
- Large gatherings also stand banned under the order which came into force from 1 pm on Friday and will remain till January 15, unless withdrawn earlier, senior police officer S Chaitanya said.
- "The city continues to be threatened with COVID-19 pandemic in light of the increase in cases and emergence of the new Omicron variant," the order said. Authorities had banned all large gatherings ahead of the New Year earlier.
- Mumbai and Maharashtra have seen a huge surge in coronavirus cases in recent days, driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.
- On Thursday, Maharashtra reported 5,368 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, 37 per cent higher than the day before. Of them, 198 were Omicron. Mumbai too saw a massive 46 per cent jump with 3,671 infections. At 190, the city also registered most of the state's new Omicron patients.
- On Thursday afternoon, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met the state's Covid task force. One of the key discussions at the high-level meeting was on the new variant that is believed to be driving up the infections in the state, which has the highest overall cases in the country.
- So far, 450 patients affected by Omicron have been registered by the state. India has logged over 960 cases of the new variant.
- India's financial capital has seen a five-fold increase over the last week in the daily surge in Covid cases - the city logged 683 infections last Friday.
- Fearing a fresh coronavirus wave, the city's civic body - the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation - has reactivated its ward-level war rooms to tackle the increasing number of cases.
- These war rooms are set up in all 24 wards to manage hospital admissions, oxygen and medicine requirements and vaccination as well. The war rooms - that follow the "test, trace and treat" strategy - also keep a track of patients isolated at their homes.
- While cases have been rising, the Mumbai civic body has said, more than 90 per cent of the cases are asymptomatic. Despite a ban on large gatherings ahead of the New Year's celebrations, the streets are still witnessing huge crowds.
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