Maharashtra's Amravati placed under 1-week complete lockdown

Amravati: Maharashtra government on Sunday announced that there will be one-week lockdown in state's Amravati district from Monday, 22 February owing to the spike in novel coronavirus cases.

"One-week complete lockdown in remain in force in Amravati district excluding Achalpur city, beginning 8 pm tomorrow," said Guardian Minister Yashomati Thakur adding that essential services permitted. This means that the lockdown, which is slated to begin from tomorrow night, will go on till 1 March.

Lockdown will continue in Amravati till 8 pm on February 28. The other 4 districts in Amravati division will have restrictions like mid-September Covid-19 peak. Divisional Commissioner issued circular in this regard.

The authorities also added that additional restrictions have been imposed in Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana & Washim.

Earlier today, the Maharashtra government had expressed thinking of imposing a night curfew in several districts across the state. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was expected to chair a meeting today in which the decision regarding the same will be taken, State Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar informed today.

"The coronavirus cases are increasing on daily basis in several districts of Maharashtra. Due to this, an order to enforce the coronavirus norms has been given to all district magistrates. They have also have been authorised to take decisions in view of the pandemic situation," said Wadettiwar.

Earlier, authorities in Amravati had imposed a weekend lockdown to stem the rising cases of COVID-19 this week.

Moreover, with cases surging all over the state, Pune on Saturday imposed a night curfew between 11 pm and 6 am.

The Pune divisional commissioner said on Sunday that no public movement except those involved in essential services will be allowed in the night. In addition to this, all schools and colleges will also remain shut till 28 February.

A weekend lockdown was announced in Amravati district, from 8 pm on Saturday to 7 am on Monday, a period during which markets and other establishments will remain shut, but essential services will remain unaffected.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported more than 6,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row on Saturday, a health department official said.

Out of 6,281 new cases, over 1,700 or about 27 percent were recorded in Mumbai and Amravati municipal corporation areas, he said.

The state had recorded over 6,000 cases after a gap of three months on Friday.

While the caseload increased to 20,93,913 on Saturday, the death toll increased to 51,753 with 40 new fatalities.

Moreover, amid a spike in daily new cases of COVID-19 in some states including Maharashtra and Kerala, the Centre has advised them to increase the proportion of RT-PCR tests and regularly monitor mutant strains besides refocusing on strict surveillance and stringent containment in selected districts.

In a letter to the states, the government has also stressed that all negative rapid antigen test results should be mandatorily followed by RT-PCR test.