Next 15 days crucial to understand COVID-19 spread: BMC after locals resume for all

Passengers travel in general timings of 12 to 4 pm as local train services begin for all. Pic/Bipin Kokate

After the Mumbai local trains resumed for business for all the citizens after a 10-month shutdown period on February 1, the country's richest civic body said that the next 15 days will be crucial to understand the spread of COVID-19 following the development.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) additional commissioner Suresh Kakani said, "We feel that the next 15 days will be crucial and after that we will be in a position to comment whether the cases are going up due to local trains or not. We are keeping a tight watch on the daily cases and are also making preparations for the ongoing vaccination drive."

The Mumbai local trains, which are said to be the lifeline of the city were suspended for over 10-months due to the COVID-19 enforced lockdown period. Later, the services were started in a staggered manner for essential service staffers, women, and lawyers with different time slots.

On January 29, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray decided to open the local train services for all. As per the announcement by the Chief Minister's Office, travel for the general public will be allowed till 7 am from the start of the first local train then from 12 pm to 4 pm, and then after 9 pm. The timings of the local train services have been restricted in order to avoid crowding amid the COVID-19 crisis in the city.

Officials from the civic body also said that they will not deactivate any COVID-19 infrastructure such as quarantine centres, dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, jumbo COVID-19 centres, for the next two months to ensure that the situation does not goes out of control, in case of a spike in cases.

However, few of the centres have been temporarily deactivated after the cases declined in the city but BMC officials said that these centres can be activated within 24 hours, in case of an emergency situation.

"We are constantly monitoring the situation and until March 31, none of the COVID-19 infrastructure will be deactivated permanently," Kakani added.