In view of the rising coronavirus positive cases, those not wearing face masks in Thane city of Maharashtra will be fined Rs 500.
Thane Municipal Commissioner Vipin Sharma issued an order to this effect on Friday night. “The step is necessary in view of the rapid increase in positive cases in the city,” the order said.
Other municipal corporations in Thane district have issued similar orders recently.
The administration of neighbouring Palghar district has also instructed the people to use face masks.
Those flouting the order will be penalised on the spot, a senior district official has said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently issued guidelines allowing the Delhi Metro to resume operations in a graded manner, following which the DMRC had said it would be done in three stages from September 7-12.
Under stage one, Yellow Line or Line 2 and Rapid Metro were made operational with restricted service hours. Stage two kicked in from Friday with extended service hours, and stage three came into effect from Saturday onwards with Metro services going back to pre-Covid-19 time schedule.
Japan is preparing to relax restrictions on attendance numbers for events including professional sports games, as the recent wave of infections subsides and the government seeks to further open the economy. The Australian state of Victoria reported another drop in cases and deaths.
Global cases reached 28.3 million, with deaths at 912,212. U.S. cases rose 0.8%, above the 0.6% average daily increase of the previous week. The virus is surging among the young in the U.K., as France’s prime minister warned of a “clear degradation” with more than 9,000 cases reported for a second day.
Track all developments around the Covid outbreak, here.
