Mumbai : Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday announced that people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be allowed to commute in local trains in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) from August 15, but only 14 days after taking the second dose. A decision over relaxations for malls, theatres, restaurants and religious places will be taken on Monday, he said. Thackeray spoke about relaxations in Covid restrictions, the threat of the third Covid wave and the need to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour in his tweets on Sunday evening.

“The second wave of Covid-19 has not fully subsided. The threat of the third wave is still looming large. I know that people are running out of patience due to the lockdown curbs, but we should not lower our guard as the Covid-19 crisis is not over as yet. We are trying to strike a balance between keeping the virus in check and opening up financial activities,” Thackeray said in his tweet.

The general commuters were banned from local trains in the first week of April after the second wave hit, only two months after the services had resumed on February 1 after nearly a year of the network remaining off limits for the general public beginning march 2020, due to the outbreak of the first wave of the pandemic. Only a few categories of emergency and essential services workers were allowed during the period.

As per the new arrangement, fully vaccinated people will have to register themselves on a mobile application that is being developed by the government before they can travel on the local train network. The registration facility will also be available offline at the offices of the civic bodies and railway offices. In Mumbai, 1.9 million people will be eligible for this relaxation on August 15, having completed two weeks after receiving the second dose of the vaccine before August 1.

The fully vaccinated commuters will be issued passes through the mobile application after registration and submission of their vaccination certificates. The passes will bear a QR code, which will enable them to access the local train network, a government official said.

Maharashtra recorded 5,508 Covid cases and 151 deaths on Sunday, while Mumbai added 305 new cases and nine deaths, taking the city’s death toll to 15,951. The state tally of Covid-19 cases stands at 6.35 million and the death toll has touched 133,996.