Omicron: Section 144 imposed in Mumbai for 48 hours; no morcha, rally allowed

On Friday, Maharashtra reported seven new Omicron cases, including one in a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler. Three of the seven instances were recorded in Mumbai, with the remaining four coming from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

In response to the increasing number of cases of the new Covid-19 version, Omicron, the Mumbai Police Department has implemented Section 144 of the CrPC in the city for 48 hours in order to avoid big crowds.

The Mumbai Police, citing Omicron and recent incidences of violence in Maharashtra’s Amravati, Malegaon, and Nanded, issued an order on Friday barring any rally, morcha, procession, or other gathering of people or vehicles inside its authority on two days on December 11 and 12.

Chaitanya S, Deputy Commissioner of Police, issued the prohibition order (operations). It warns that anyone who disobeys the order will be prosecuted under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code and other applicable penal laws. “The order is hereby passed ex-parte because the notice cannot be issued individually to all parties involved.” It will be disseminated in the press for the public’s information,” it claimed.

The news comes after the state disclosed seven additional Omicron variant cases on Friday, one of which involved a three-and-a-half-year-old girl. Maharashtra is now dominating the charts with 17 cases, just over a week after the new strain was first spotted in the country. According to the Mumbai civic authorities, there have been five such incidents in the capital city. There are now 32 Omicron cases in India, spread across five states.

On Friday, three COVID-19 cases were reported from Mumbai, and four from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Four of these people are said to be asymptomatic, while the other three have moderate symptoms. With the exception of the toddler (who is ineligible), four of the new cases are from people who have been completely vaccinated. One has only received a single dosage of vaccine, while the other is unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, data from the BMC’s sixth genomic sequencing project suggests that COVID-19 variants circulating in Mumbai are ‘descendants’ of the Delta variation. Delta derivatives, according to reports, now account for a large portion of COVID-19 cases in the city.

India has 93,277 active COVID-19 cases and has provided about 1.31 billion doses of vaccine as of Saturday morning. There are a bit more than 10,000 active cases in Maharashtra.

Also Read: Varun Singh, a Group Captain who survived the chopper crash, will be shifted to Bengaluru