Keypoints:
- During this period, all schools,colleges, malls and wedding halls will be closed.
- Night restrictions have been imposed from March 11 to April 4 with complete lockdown in Aurangabad district.
- Hotels will close by 9 pm and food delivery will be available till 11 pm.
- Central Government has rushed high-level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab amid the COVID case rise.
In the view of rising Covid cases in the state of Maharashtra, night restrictions have been imposed from March 11 to April 4 along with complete lockdown in the Aurangabad district. Aurangabad’s district administration announced that there will be restrictions on the movement of people between 9 pm to 6 am on weekdays and throughout the day on weekends.
Aurangabad district has a tally of 52,103 infections while the death toll stands at 1,284. On Friday, the Aurangabad added 459 cases to its cumulative total.
The Health Department said that after reporting more than 10,000 fresh coronavirus positive cases on two days in a row, Maharashtra on Sunday added 11,141 new infections, taking the tally to 22,19,727 while 38 deaths pushed the toll to 52,478.
Maharashtra state is once again back to being the state worst affected by COVID-19, with over 10,000 infections being reported daily. The total coronavirus tally of the state has breached the 22 lakh-mark.
The highest case rise in Maharashtra was recorded on March 7 with a rise of 11,000 cases in 24 hours.
“The partial lockdown in Aurangabad district will come into force from March 11 and will continue till April 4,” collector Chavan told reporters after the meeting.
“Markets shall remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays, but essential services shall operate on these days. Marriage ceremonies will not be allowed to be held at function halls and banquet halls during this period to avoid crowding. But the facility of registered marriage will be open,” he said.
“Political, religious, social meetings, marches will be prohibited during this period. Swimming pools, sports competitions shall not be permitted,” Chavan said.
According to him,online education shall continue as colleges, schools, and training institutes shall remain shut and libraries shall operate at 50 per cent of their seating capacity.
“Bringing activities to a halt will not be done if partial lockdown works. If cases continue to go up, the option of imposing a stricter lockdown is open,” Chavan said.
Aurangabad municipal commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey had earlier said, “The administration is closely monitoring the situation. In the past, when the number of cases went up, we were able to manage well as it was a lockdown period. But now it will be a challenge.”
