Nagpur in Maharashtra will go under complete lockdown for a week, from 15 March to 21 March, due to the rising cases of coronavirus in the city. During the week-long lockdown, only essential services will stay open, according to the order issued by the Nagpur district administration. This comes two days after a ‘Janata curfew’ was imposed in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, from 8 pm today to 8 am on Monday.
Maharashtra reported 14,317 new Covid-19 cases and 57 death in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative count of the cases in the state has reached 22,66,374. The state currently has1,06,070 active coronavirus cases.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said strict lockdown measures will be imposed in some parts of the state to contain the spread of coronavirus. Thackeray said this after receiving the first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 at J J Hospital in Mumbai.
MPSC exam postponed due to Covid-19 surge
The state government, postponed the preliminary exam of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC), just three days before it was supposed to be conducted. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said, “Last time when it (MPSC exams) was postponed, I’d assured you it won’t be further postponed when the next date is declared. Today it was postponed due to COVID.”
“Don’t want to play with students’ emotions but don’t want to play with their health either,” he added.
Last month, the lockdown was enforced in Amravati, while certain restrictions were imposed in some other districts of the Amravati division.
Don’t take Covid-19 for granted: Centre
The Centre today advised people to be “careful and watchful” and not lower guard as the pandemic is not yet over. At a press conference, NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul termed the coronavirus situation, especially in Maharashtra, ‘worrisome’.
Eight out of the top 10 districts with active COVID-19 cases are in Maharashtra, stated Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in course of a press briefing on the actions taken, preparedness and updates COVID-19, held at National Media Centre in New Delhi today.
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Pune with 18,474 cases tops the list, followed by Nagpur with 12,724 cases, then Thane with 10,460 cases and Mumbai with 9,973 cases. The other districts of Maharashtra in the list are Amravati, Jalgaon, Nashik and Aurangabad.
The Health Secretary further stated that active cases are rising in the country, after touching the lowest mark in mid-February. “In the last one month, the states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana have shown a rise in the number of active cases, while the cases have shown a decline in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, he further added. However, the seven days moving average of the daily death count remains low despite the rise in active cases in the country,” he further informed.
As per DG ICMR Delhi, the surge in Maharashtra is related to the reduced number of testing. “Maharashtra has shown a worrisome trend. A mutant strain of SARSCoV2 has not been found incriminating in the surge of cases. The surge is just related to the reduced number of testing, tracking & tracing as well as COVID-Inappropriate behaviours and large gatherings.”
India Covid-19 tally
India recorded 22,854 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest in two months, taking the total caseload to 1,12,85,561 including 1,89,226 active cases and 1,09,38,146 recoveries. The death toll due to COVID-19 has mounted to 1,58,189, the Union Health Ministry reported.
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