Maharashtra govt makes wearing of masks compulsory amid surge in Covid-19 cases

The Maharashtra government on Saturday made wearing of masks in public places except in open spaces compulsory amid rise in covid cases. The decision came in light of the recent surge in Maharashtra over the past few days.

Additional Chief Secretary, Dr Pradeep Vyas, in a letter issued the required orders including mandating the wearing of masks in closed public spaces like trains, buses, cinemas, auditoriums, offices, hospitals, colleges, and schools was a must.

In his letter, Vyas wrote, “After seeing a sustained decline in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state over the last couple of months, cases have started slowly but steadily increasing and the daily cases have crossed 1,000 for the first time after 3 months on, 1 June 2022. Currently, Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Thane are seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases but with the positivity rate increasing in other districts (Annexure-1), we can expect an increase in cases in other districts as well.”

He said, "In the last week, as many as nine districts have shown growth in the number of new cases as compared to the week preceding that (Annexure-2). ln view of this, steps will need to be taken to keep the surge under control and to keep hospital admissions to a minimum."

On Friday the state reported 1,134 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths. Out of the new cases, 763 were from Mumbai. Of 9,354 cases added by the state in May, 5,980 cases, or nearly 64 per cent, were contributed by Mumbai, data showed.