After a lot of discussions, meetings, and opinions, the Maharashtra state government has finally been decided to allow fully vaccinated passengers in Local Trains in Mumbai from 15th August. It was not just about the decision being taken, but a lot of other things needed to be taken care of alongside.
Uddhav Thackeray, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra said that people would be able to access fully vaccinated passes through their mobile phones. While this being said, he also added that an offline method would also be ensured for those who do not have access to mobile phones.
This in fact is a very good decision as fully vaccinated people are comparatively less prone and eventually safer from Covid-19. This benefits a major chunk of our society as most people earlier were dependent on the Local Trains for their daily traveling. After Covid-19, it had become extremely difficult and expensive for these people to reach their workplaces.
While Thackeray did acknowledge the declining Covid-19 cases, he also reminded the state that the pandemic is not over yet. One shouldn’t get too comfortable and irresponsible with the ease of lockdowns.
He said, “COVID-19 has not gone, it’s still here. What we have learned is that if we need to control the spread we have to follow COVID-19 protocols and increase vaccination. We have the capacity to vaccinate up to 15 lakh per day. We have already vaccinated up to 8 lakh people on a single day.”
Talking about the mobile app, Thackeray said that one would be able to get their pass for traveling in Local Trains only after thorough verification is done. The passes would also have a QR Code attached in them which would ease the verification process.
Speaking in a recent live webcast, the chief minister also said that they would now be considering more relaxations for shops, malls, restaurants and places of religious worship and a decision would soon be taken after a meeting of the task force on Monday.
Earlier, Maharashtra’s state government had eased some of the Covid curbs in 14 districts that had the lowest Covid positivity rate. However, a final decision had not been taken for Mumbai local trains. On the weekend, the CM had said that it would take a few days to make the final decision on how the larger sector of the society could benefit from the relaxation.
He also said that in this first phase, only those people would be allowed who have completed 14 days after their second dose of vaccination before traveling.
Maharashtra presently has a total of 74,944 active cases in the state. 5,508 new Covid-19 cases and 151 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the recovery rate is good and stands at 4,895 for the last 24 hours.
