Despite the Mumbai civic body's - the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) – awareness campaign and the appeal of wearing masks in the Coronavirus pandemic, some people consider it prudent not to follow the rules. Even in the Andheri area of Mumbai, some careless people walking on the road without a mask. BMC got them to sweep the road near the Covid Care Center as a punishment for violating COVID-19 guidelines.
Some people were also assigned to serve the elderly. BMC charges a fine of Rs 200 from those who travel without masks. BMC has collected a sum of Rs 3 crore as a penalty for violating Covid-19 protocols by about 1.50 lakh people. But many people do not have any effect on it. To teach a lesson to such people, BMC got them cleaned in public places.
Earlier, launched a massive month-long campaign to punish people not wearing masks to curb the coronavirus pandemic's spread further.
The civic body has warned that those found violating the Centre's COVID-19 safety protocols will be booked and penalized. The civic body has set itself a target of booking 20,000 offenders daily and has deputed 960 staff.
The move comes in the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases in the city. BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said, "A large number of citizens do not wear face masks which could lead to situation getting difficult in future thereby delaying opening up of the city."
"The BMC is initiating a mass drive of penalizing approximately 20,000 citizens per day found without masks in public spaces...this drive will continue for a month at least, and it will be monitored personally by me every evening," the BMC chief said.
The number of coronavirus positive patients in Maharashtra rose to 16,60,766 with the addition of 6,738 cases on Wednesday, a state health department official said. The fatality count in the state reached 43,554 after 91 persons died due to the infection, he said.
A total of 8,430 patients were discharged during the day, which took the tally of recovered persons to 14,86,926, the official said. With this, the number of active cases in the state stands at 1,29,746. Mumbai city reported 1,354 positive cases during the day, which pushed its overall case count to 2,54,240, while its death toll rose to 10,196 with the addition of 31 latest fatalities.
The state has so far conducted 87,68,879 tests. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 tally is as follows: Positive cases: 16,60,766, new cases: 6,738, death toll: 43,554, discharged: 14,86,926, active cases: 1,29,746, people tested so far: 87,68,879.