Maharashtra: No congregational Eid prayers; only 4-5 people to offer prayers at Mosques

Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Sunday said that the Muslim community members have restrained themselves from offering congregational prayers on the occasion of Eid amid the Coronavirus crisis. According to him, only a limited number of people (four to five) will offer their prayers at mosques and eidgahs, while the rest of the people can pray at home. 

The Minister added that there is no pressure from the government, instead, the people have decided this on their own. Further, the religious leaders have also reportedly told the community members to offer prayers at home.  Meanwhile, Maulana Ashraf Imam of Malwani in Mumbai who is important within the Shia community stated that the notice on the prohibition of congregational prayers has been put outside the mosques since March. As they are following the government's SOP, they have suspended all the congregational prayers. 

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COVID-19 in Maharashtra 

Leading as the epicenter of the Coronavirus cases in the country, Maharashtra has yet again breached its earlier single-highest one-day COVID-19 tally after 2,940 persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, May 22. While there are 44,582 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the state, the number of active cases stands at 30,474. 857 COVID-19 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recovered to 12,583.

Meanwhile, around 1,517 deaths have been recorded in Maharashtra. A total of 3,32,777 laboratory samples have been collected until now. Currently, there are 1,949 active containment zones in the state. Surveillance of 66.32 lakh population has been undertaken by 16,154 surveillance squads. While 4,69,279 persons are under home quarantine, 28,430 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centers.

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Maharashtra redefines COVID-19 zones

After extending lockdown till May 31, the state has divided its COVID-19 zones as “red zones” and “non-red zones", instead of red, orange, and green zones - based on death count and doubling rate. As per the new definition, Maharashtra's red zones are Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgoan, Akola and Amravati, while the rest of the state are non-red zones. While stringent restrictions prevalent in the previous red zones, the rest of the state has been allowed to open up as per MHA's Lockdown 4.0 guidelines.

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