MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said only five people should participate in arrival and immersion processions of domestic Lord Ganesh idols during the Ganpati festival next month in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The BMC, which is spearheading Mumbai's fight against coronavirus, on Thursday made a special appeal to citizens in this regard ahead of the festival to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the metropolis, which has recorded more than 1 lakh cases and nearly 6,000 deaths so far.
Besides public installation of Lord Ganesh idols, thousands of people install such idols at home and immerse them on different days during the 10-day festival, the most popular religious event in Maharashtra.
Requesting people to refrain from doing any act that leads to the spread of COVID-19, the civic body, in a release, warned that violators may invite strict action under relevant sections of the Epidemic Act 1897, the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Indian Penal Code.
Asking people to follow safety protocols that include use of mask or shield, hand sanitizers and social distancing norms during the festival, the BMC appealed to citizens to avoid participating in big processions to protect their families from COVID-19.
This year, the festival starts from August 22.
The civic body said home-installed Ganpati idols should be made using eco-friendly materials and their height should not be more than two feet.
"Instead of using idols made of clay, if possible, worship metal or marble idols," the BMC urged the citizens.
The civic body asked people to carry out immersion of eco-friendly Ganpatis at home.
If that is not possible, then idols should be immersed in artificial lakes, it said.
The BMC said taking out a common procession of domestic idols from a housing society or building should be avoided.
Also, children and elderly persons should not be allowed to visit immersion sites, it said.
The tally of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai increased to 1,05,829 on Thursday with 1,257 new patients detected, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The death toll due to the pandemic in India's financial capital rose to 5,927 with 55 patients succumbing, it said.
1,984 COVID-19 patients were discharged from city hospitals during the day, taking the number of recovered patients to 77,102.
The recovery rate of coronavirus patients in Mumbai has now gone up to 72 per cent from 71 per cent the day before, the BMC said.
There are 22,800 active cases in the city and 886 new suspected patients have been admitted to hospitals.
So far 4.56 lakh COVID-19 tests have been carried out in the city, it said.
Based on the past seven days' data, the city has an average case doubling rate of 61 days and average case growth rate of 1.14 per cent.