Coronavirus in Navi Mumbai: NMMC shuts malls and shopping complexes till August 31

Coronavirus in Navi Mumbai: NMMC shuts malls and shopping complexes till August 31

Amit SrivastavaUpdated: Thursday, August 06, 2020, 09:15 PM IST
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BL Soni

Now, malls and shopping complexes under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) will remain closed till August 31. The civic body issued a new circular on Wednesday night and put on hold on its earlier decision that allowed opening malls and shopping complexes in the city under the Unlock 3.

Ironically, shopping malls that were closed for around four and half months due to coronavirus outbreak in the country, opened for only 10 hours on Wednesday. And as rains lashed the city, there were very few visitors at the mall.

On the contrary, the civic administration claimed that people from outside of NMMC’s jurisdiction traveled to malls. “Since malls opened only in our area, it was observed that many people were traveling from outside our limits as well to the mall. There would have been an unreasonable crowd than expected. So, the decision to open malls and shopping complexes has been put on hold,” said municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar.

Under Unlock 3, the state government allowed the opening of shopping complexes and malls, except foot court inside the malls. Following the state government’s directive, the civic body issued a circular and allowed the opening of malls in the city.

Malls that were closed for almost four and a half months opened on Wednesday morning. However, it saw a lesser crowd than usual because of the corona crisis and incessant heavy rainfalls for the last two days. Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, the civic body issued a new circular and put on hold its earlier decision of allowing malls and shopping complexes to open.

According to civic administration, the coronavirus crisis is not over in Navi Mumbai and there is a need for some precautionary measures to prevent the spread. “The civic body is taking a number of measures to contain the spread. The number of active cases is already around 4000 and if people from other areas travel to NMMC’s jurisdiction, all efforts in containing will go in vain,” said another senior civic official.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a record of 1,113 people cured and discharged under the NMMC. So far, 19,143 people have cured with a 74% recovery rate in the city.

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