Mumbai: Housing societies swing into action as cases surge in the city

With a sudden rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the city, residents of housing societies have started implementing safety measures that they adopted when the pandemic broke out in the city early last year.

Between March and September last year, most of the housing societies and residential buildings in the city had imposed voluntary lockdown in the society thus restricting entry and exit of the daily visitors.

“As the number of cases has witnessed rise again, residents of Marine Drive, Cuffe Parade and Churchgate areas have become extra cautious and have now started to implement lockdown measures in their buildings,” Harshita Narwekar, corporator of Cuffe Parade told FPJ.

Narwekar also maintained that most of the residents living in the residential buildings of Marine Drive and Churchgate are senior citizens which is why the local people have become serious with the precautions.

“We are monitoring the entry and exit of our residents, most of the working individuals are working from their homes so it will be safer for us if we don’t allow outsiders to enter the buildings for some time,” stated Naseer Shaikh a resident at Marine Drive.

The locals have also stated, in order to avoid another lockdown, now its important for the government to start vaccinating the common citizens.

“The citizen’s won’t be able to afford another lockdown so its time, the state government should allow local clinics and hospitals to start vaccinating common citizens in presentation of their Aadhar cards,” Ashok Gupta, vice-president of Marine Drive Citizen’s Association told FPJ.

Also in order to curb the spread, members of Advanced Locality Management (ALM) groups have also hit the ground in order to spread awareness amongst people.

Members of the ALM groups have stated that people still lack the conscience of wearing their mask at public places while it has been one year since the pandemic broke out.

“We are coordinating with local residents and housing societies urging them to follow the COVID-19 protocols and to not step out of their house unless its absolutely necessary,” Mario Fishery, member of ALM group Bandra West, told FPJ.

“The teenagers and those who are in their mid-twenties are still casual towards wearing masks, so we are working to spread more awareness amongst them,” Fishery added.