Mumbai police discontinue colour-coded stickers on vehicles amid COVID-19 crisis

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Mumbai: Mumbai Police has issued an order to discontinue the Red, Green and Yellow stickers system for vehicles moving across the city carrying essential and medical items amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

No reason has been specified for the discontinuation of the system. Earlier, new restrictions were imposed in the state for traffic and transportation of ambulance, doctors` vehicles, and those carrying medical supplies. 

The colour-coded sticker system was implemented last week in order to limit vehicular traffic on Mumbai roads and to allow vehicles related to essential services with more ease amid the increasing number of coronavirus infections.

A Red sticker was to be used for vehicles belonging to doctors, medical staff, and transportation of essential medical supplies; Green for vehicles carrying consumable items (fruits, vegetables, dairy products, etc) and Yellow for essential services including the movement of officials from the government, telephone department, electricity department and the media.

Earlier, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had announced a series of `strict restrictions` in the state till May 1 including the imposition of Section 144 from Wednesday in view of rising COVID-19 cases. 

He, however, refrained from calling it a `lockdown`.Under the new guidelines, all establishments, public places, activities will remain closed in the state. Only essential services will be exempted, and their operations to be unrestricted.

Maharashtra remains one of the worst affected states hit by the pandemic. As many as 66,836 new cases, 74,045 recoveries and 773 deaths were reported on Friday. The active cases stand at 6,91,851 while the death toll is at 63,252.