India’s Mumbai issues new rules of sealing residential buildings as COVID-19 cases soar

MUMBAI, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — India’s big city Mumbai has tightened rules of sealing residential buildings over rising COVID-19 cases, according to a circular issued by the city’s civic authority BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) late Monday.

Under the guidelines, the BMC would seal the whole residential building if over 20 percent of the occupied number of flats in a building or a wing has COVID-19 patients.

The circular effective Tuesday came as the financial capital of India reported 8,082 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the tally of active cases to 37,274. This was a second consecutive day for the city to report over 8,000 daily cases though around 90 percent of the cases were reported to be asymptomatic.

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Following the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases, the BMC has ordered to close schools till Jan. 31.

Stringent measures would be imposed if the daily COVID-19 cases in the city cross the 20,000 mark, said BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal in a television interview.

India has 171,830 active cases of COVID-19 in total currently, showed data from India’s federal health ministry.  Enditem