BMC Chief Iqbal Singh Chahal rules out possibility of fresh lockdown in Mumbai

There will no fresh lockdown in Mumbai and the current restrictions will remain unchanged as the COVID-19 situation in the city is under control, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Chahal.Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Chahal said that any new curbs in the city were not required at the moment."We don't see the need for any additional restrictions at the moment. The death rate is under control. We are not seeing pressure on hospitals," Chahal said. However, he said that the local administration may need to enforce new restrictions if the positivity rate goes beyond 15 percent.

"If people keep on behaving irresponsibly, despite vaccination if the positivity keeps on increasing and if it goes beyond 15 percent then naturally we would be forced to get some new measures in place, some curbs. If people show COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and the positivity remains under control, there is not cause for being concerned," he said. The BMC has taken up vaccination in a big way and aims to vaccinate 30 lakh people by April 15."We plan to do 1.25 lakh vaccinations every day starting from the coming week. So, our target is by April 15 we vaccinate these 30 lakh people and I am sure we will get the death rate nearly to zero. With strategy and no pressure on the hospitals and death rate under control, I think we just need to be tight with SOPs. We don’t need any more curbs," he said. Chahal also appealed to people to act responsibly and not roam around unnecessarily."

BMC is pushing restrictions on wedding ceremonies, cinema halls, restaurants very tightly. BMC officials are present in all functions and weddings to ensure SOPs are followed," he said. He informed that around 8,000 hospital beds were lying vacant in the COVID section. As many as eight of the 10 districts in Maharashtra have witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases forcing the state government to enforce lockdown or night curfews. A night curfew has been imposed in Pune, a strict lockdown has been declared in Akola, while a night curfew has been imposed in Panvel, Navi Mumbai and lockdown has been imposed in Parbhani district. Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours Maharashtra has reported 15,817 new cases of coronavirus taking the total to 22,82,191.There have been 56 deaths from coronavirus in Maharashtra during the past day taking the death toll to 56,723.