Amid fears of a third wave of the pandemic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued fresh curbs for Ganesh Chaturthi.
The civic body has banned physical darshan for devotees at public Ganpati mandals and has appealed to citizens to celebrate the festival without ceremony.
As per the norms, restrictions have been imposed on the number of participants in processions for bringing the idols and during their immersion. Not more than 10 people will be allowed in the processions of public pandals and not more than five for household Ganpatis. All participants should have taken both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and completed 15 days after taking the second dose, the rules said.
In a previous notification, the BMC had restricted the height of household Ganpati idols to two feet, and four feet for the public mandals.
Meanwhile, the State reported 4,174 new COVID-19 cases against 4,154 recoveries during the day. The active tally stands at 47,880, while 65 deaths took the total toll to 1,37,962. The case fatality rate remains at 2.12%. The total case tally has reached 64,97,872, while recoveries have risen to 63,08,491, with the recovery rate at 97.09%.
“Of 5,53,38,772 laboratory samples tested thus far, 64,93,698 (with the average case positivity falling incrementally to 11.77%) have returned positive, with more than 1.79 lakh samples being tested in the last 24 hours,” said State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate.
Pune reported nearly 1,000 new cases, taking its tally to 11,26,345, while four deaths pushed the total toll over 18,760. As per district authorities, the active case tally has exceeded 8,600.
532 cases in Mumbai
Mumbai reported a surge of 532 cases to take its total case tally to 7,47,605, while the active case tally rose to 4,435. Four deaths took the city’s death toll to 16,004.
Ahmednagar reported over 800 new cases and 12 deaths, taking its total cases to 3,15,193, of whom 5,263 are active. The district’s death toll rose to 6,629.
Satara reported 436 new cases and six deaths. taking the total cases to 2,42,103, of whom 5,061 are active, while the death toll rose to 6,090. Sangli saw 236 cases and no deaths. The total case tally stands at 2,03,765, with the active cases rising to 2,944, while its total death toll stands at 5,504.
Kolhapur reported 98 new cases and three deaths, taking its total case tally to 2,04,897. The active cases rose slightly to 1,232. The cumulative death toll stands at 5,814.
