Chhattisgarh's Raipur announces 10-day lockdown from April 9

Raipur: The authorities in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur announced on Wednesday that the entire district has been declared a containment zone in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases. The stringent measures applicable in containment zones will come into effect from 6pm on Friday (April 9) and remain in place till 6am on April 19.

"Keeping in mind the Covid-19 situation, Raipur district is being declared a containment zone from 6pm on 9th April till 6am on 19th April. All the borders of the district will remain sealed during this period," Raipur district collector S Bharathi Dasan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

With the detection of 9,921 fresh cases on Tuesday, Chhattisgarh saw its highest single-day spike since the outbreak of the infection in March last year, taking the state's caseload to 3,68,269, as per official figures.

The worst-hit Raipur and Durg districts accounted for 2,821 and 1,838 of the new cases, respectively. While the cumulative count of the infection in Raipur reached 76,427, including 1,001 deaths, Durg's caseload increased to 45,891, including 812 fatalities.

The Covid-19 death toll in Chhattisgarh also rose to 4,416 as 53 more people succumbed to the disease on Tuesday.

Sjovraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, said on Wednesday that the state government is suspending bus operations with Chhattisgarh till April 15. An order to this effect was issued by the Madhya Pradesh transport department.

On Sunday, Chouhan said that the Madhya Pradesh government will restrict the movement of people from Chhattisgarh to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The high caseload in Chhattisgarh and 10 others states prompted Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to hold a meeting with health ministers of these states. After a detailed and comprehensive review of the measures taken by these states, Vardhan concluded that together they contribute to 54 per cent of the total cases and 65 per cent of the total deaths in the country.

Maharashtra (25 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (14 per cent) have reported the highest positivity rate.