Covid-19 | Commuters in local trains not wearing masks, says Mumbai mayor

Majority of commuters travelling in local trains in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) are not wearing masks, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said, indicating stricter measures in India’s financial capital to combat the sudden rise of Covid-19 cases.

“Let us not push ourselves to another lockdown....it is people only who will have to take a call,” Pednekar told reporters.

She also expressed concern over the way people are travelling in local trains without masks. “Only 40% of commuters are wearing masks inside the local trains...which means the majority of the 60% people are not wearing means when inside trains,” said Pedkear, who started her career as a nurse to become a civic leader.

“We will have to be careful...let us not go back to square one,” she said.

In the Mumbai-MMR area, the cases have grown by an average of 950-plus daily for the past seven days.

It needs to be mentioned that from 1 February, the local trains have been opened for the general public, though with restricted timings.

However, crowding has been witnessed in the evening hours in the suburban trains of Central Railway and Western Railway.

According to Mumbai’s railway administration, nearly 30 to 35 lakh people are now using trains—that is nearly the 50% of the 75 to 80 lakh people who were using trains before March 2020 Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown.