Officials have been directed by Mumbai’s civic commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Monday to deploy police at the entrance of a building sealed due to the coronavirus pandemic in order to stop people from entering them so as to curb the spread of infection.
According to current civic protocol, if it has five or more COVID-19 patients, a building needs to be sealed. The city had 27 sealed buildings as of Monday.
Information was released by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation that the decision was taken at a virtual meeting chaired by Chahal and attended by ward officers, hospital deans and officials of the civic public health department as well as the Mumbai police’s deputy commissioner (operations).
No one would be allowed to enter the sealed buildings the notice said, while people who come to provide various services would also be stopped.
Chahal said the people living in such buildings might be troubled by the order but he asked them to cooperate so that the pandemic could be controlled as soon as possible.
The municipal commissioner told the authorities in all 24 wards of the BMC to appoint clean up marshals to take disciplinary action against those not wearing masks or disobeying social distancing norms. The BMC release said the number of COVID-19 patients had gone up slightly in the metropolis and there was need to be careful about implementing preventive measures.
Chahal asked civic hospitals and jumbo treatment centres to be prepared, keeping in mind the possibility of a third wave of infections as well as a potential outbreak of the Delta variant. He said 74 per cent of people above the age of 18 in Mumbai had been vaccinated against coronavirus and asked civic officials to ensure the rest 26 per cent are covered quickly.
