No lockdown, further curbs in Mumbai even if COVID-19 cases rise: Iqbal Singh Chahal

Representative image

Even as Mumbai reported record 20,181 fresh COVID-19 cases on January 6, the country's financial capital has no plans to impose a lockdown.

The city has no plans to shut down even as the cases continue to surge, Bloomberg News reported, quoting Mumbai’s Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.

"Mumbai has already banned large gatherings and also put restrictions on the number of people that can attend events. No lockdown and no further restrictions are planned even if cases were to rise," Chahal told Bloomberg News in an interview.

Among the newly reported cases, only 5 percent of patients required medical help and most recovered faster. Most patients who needed medical help were were not vaccinated, the report said.

“Yesterday, we got more than 15,000 cases. Of this only 80 patients went on oxygen beds and only around 35” needed intensive care, the report said quoting Chahal. “There is no case for a lockdown.”

With that the state government also ruled out shutting down local trains in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR).  Shutting Mumbai's local trains is not under discussion state public health and family welfare minister Rajesh Tope was quoted as saying by The Times of India. Tope however said night curfew and weekend curfew were being discussed as measures to control the spread. He further added that any such restriction will be announced by the chief minister.

COVID-19 cases in the city reached a fresh all-time single-day high and up 5,015 infections, or 33.06 percent, from a day ago, while four more patients succumbed to the disease, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on January 6.

Meanwhile, BMC also said the COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms can stay in home isolation instead of institutional quarantine or hospital, reported news agency PTI.

Amid an exponential rise in cases in Mumbai, the BMC also reduced the minimum period of home isolation to seven days from the earlier 14 days.

On January 4, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had said if the daily COVID-19 cases cross the 20,000-mark, a lockdown will be imposed in Mumbai as per the Union government’s rules.