Mumbai hits new highs with 1751 COVID-19 cases, city tally at 27068 as liquor sale resume

Hitting new highs, Mumbai on Friday, reported a record 1751 new Coronavirus cases and 27 new deaths. Of these 276 patients had tested positive on 17 May. While there have been several reports of Mumbai's COVID-19 helpline not being attended, BMC highlighted that its dedicated '1916' helpline number its 48-member team handles 4000 calls daily. The city's current tally stands at 27,068 cases and 909 deaths.

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Mumbai's liquor sales resume online

The BMC has allowed the home delivery sale of sealed liquor sales via e-commerce sites but has mentioned that the sale of liquor is prohibited in containment zones. The civic body has also appointed 3 IAS officers to manage the affairs of Sion Hospital, Nair Hospital, and KEM hospital to ensure the availability of beds, smooth availability of facilities, and efficient treatment of COVID-19. The new commissioner - Iqbal Chahal has also divided the city into 7 sections, appointing 7 IAS officers to head these areas to tackle the pandemic in an aggressive manner.

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BMC revises containment plan

In a bid to tighten its containment plan, BMC issued revised protocols for the sealing of buildings. According to the protocol, if a COVID positive case has been found in a society or a building, the entire building need not be sealed, instead only the particular floor can be sealed. While the patient will be shifted to the hospital, asymptomatic and high-risk contacts will be quarantined at home, if they have a separate toilet. The BMC will disinfect the wing or the floors concerned, but the concerned society will ensure containment zone rules are followed on the floor/wing.

As per BMC's new containment plan, the number of containment zones in the city has reduced from 2,800 to 692. BMC has redefined containment zones as larger areas that will be managed by BMC and MLAs while sealed buildings and chawls will be managed by the society itself. The total count of the number of sealed buildings stands at 1,271.

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Maharashtra redefines COVID-19 zones

After extending lockdown till May 30, 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.