Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation issues fresh restrictions for malls, department stores, gyms and parks

Considering the huge increase in the number of patients infected with COVID-19 in the last few days, now Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has announced new restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus cases in crowded places like malls, department stores, parks, markets.

The NMMC commissioner Abhijeet Bangar has issued a notice to the shopping malls directing them to make rapid antigen test (RAT) mandatory for entry of visitors after 4 pm every Friday and for the whole day on weekends, i.e Saturdays and Sundays.

This development comes as there has been a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 infected patients since March 10, 2021. Crowds at malls, departmental stores or parks and violations of COVID-related safety rules such as masks, safe distance can increase the rate of patients, said Abhijeet Bangar.

The visitors will be allowed to enter the mall only after their COVID-19 test reports are negative. Visitors can also show their negative reports, which must be conducted a maximum of 72 hours before.

Moreover, the civic body will impose a fine of INR 50,000 on the malls each time if social distancing is not followed. However, the malls will be closed completely if the fine is charged twice and it is seen being violated again.

He has also asked officials to open the temporarily closed COVID-19 Care Centres in phases and reactivate the mobile antigen van for housing societies. Two of the 14 such centres would be reserved for women.

Meanwhile, in convenience stores, departmental stores like D-Mart, Reliance Fresh, Star Bazaar among others will have to issue a limited number of tokens for visitors and a fixed number of visitors can be present in the store at a time.

Similarly, in case of overcrowding, no social distance in departmental stores, a fine of INR 50,000 will be imposed on the management of the respective stores each time. Action will be taken to close the store completely if fines are imposed twice and violations are observed a third time.

Apart from that, all the public parks will remain open only from 5.30 am to 10 am. Open gym, green gym, sports activities in parks will be completely closed and cannot be used. Strict adherence to the rules such as masks, safe distance in daily and weekly markets.