A health worker takes a swab for Covid-19 testing in Mumbai on Tuesday.
(Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus News Live Updates: In an attempt to ensure strict implementation of the Covid-19 mask rule in public places, the civic body in Thane city has decided to rope in the police, mayor Naresh Mhaske said on Wednesday, PTI reported.
The mayor said that the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has decided to take the help of police to collect fines from citizens who don’t wear masks in public places.
Of the fines collected by the police, 50 per cent will be deposited with the civic body and the remaining will be credited to the police welfare fund, Mhaske said.
Maharashtra’s Covid-19 tally rose to 13,66,129 on Tuesday, with the addition of 14,976 new cases, while 19,212 patients were discharged after recovery, PTI quoted the state health department as saying. With 430 more fatalities, the death toll in the state touched 36,181, the health department said. The state now has 2,60,363 active cases.
Mumbai city recorded 1,713 new cases, pushing its overall count to 2,02,614 while its death toll rose to 8,883 after 49 more people died due to the disease, the department said.
Pune city 1,005 Covid-19 cases, raising its overall tally to 1,54,344, while 25 new deaths took the toll to 3,500.
Outside a coffee shop in JM road in Pune on Tuesday. (Express photography by Arul Horizon)
With over 2,000 new Covid-19 cases being reported every day, Mumbai’s positivity rate is again on the rise, with senior BMC officials attributing it to the reopening of economic activities and movement of people across the state.
Month-wise data shows the city’s positivity rate – the number of people testing positive against the total number of tests being conducted in a month – showed an “optimistic decline” from 18.3 per cent in June to 17.9 per cent in July and to 14 per cent in August, but in September it climbed back to 17 per cent. Even the number of cases, which witnessed a slide from June to August, saw a rise this month. Mumbai recorded 55,096 cases from September 1 to September 28 – a rise from 31,521 cases in August and 36,626 in July.