As Covid cases continue to rise in the city and state, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that the government will impose restrictions in the next fortnight if people don’t wear masks voluntarily in crowded places. The restrictions will return, starting with a mask mandate, if the numbers increase, said a government official. This comes as the state reported a seven-fold rise in daily cases within 45 days.

The state and civic machinery have been asked to be on a high alert as active cases jumped to 4,599 in the state, and Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune reported around three-fold spike in a short period of time, contributing around 97 per cent of total active cases. Mumbai’s test positivity rate has increased to 6 per cent while that of the state stood at 3 per cent.