No plan to impose lockdown in city: BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharahstra authorities don’t want a lockdown in any respect, mentioned the Commissioner Iqbal Chahal on Monday.

He additionally mentioned that the government is not planning to impose a lockdown nor any new restrictions, however, it is going to guarantee strict adherence to present restrictions.

“Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has indicated that the government is against any lockdown and BMC also does not want a lockdown,” Chahal added.

Chahal has denied that there is a second wave of coronavirus infection in Mumbai as COVID-19 cases spike in the city.

Explaining the COVID-19 situation in the financial capital, Chahal said the coronavirus load has gone down in the slums. The additional load is coming from rich, super-rich and middle-class residential areas, he said.

“I would describe the current increase in COVID-19 cases as a surge, not a second wave,” he added.

The BMC chief asked people to follow “COVID-appropriate” behaviour, saying that the next 15 days are very critical for Mumbai. “We might face problems two weeks later if “COVID-appropriate is not observed,” he said.

Chahal asked testing laboratories in the city to scale up and be prepared to face the situation with 2,000 covid cases being reported daily. Civic officials said that Chahal asking the laboratories to be prepared does not mean that Mumbai is bound to get 2,000 cases, but the administration is preparing for it looking at the current trend.

The state is witnessing a major spike in Covid-19 cases, which several experts believe could be the start of the second wave. For the last few days, Mumbai too has started getting a higher number of cases. Over the course of the last week, cases have jumped from 370-400 odd to 700 and the number was 900 on Sunday. The positivity rate in the city has also gone up from 4% to 6%