Nagpur put under lockdown from March 15-21 to combat COVID-19 cases

A lockdown of one week, from March 15 to March 21, will be imposed in Nagpur due to the rising cases of coronavirus in the city. However, essential services such as vegetable and fruit shops and milk booths will stay open. Maharashtra has been dealing with a surge in cases for a few weeks now and it is possible that more parts of the state are put under lockdown, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.

Nagpur reported over 1,800 cases in the last 24 hours.

The decision to impose lockdown in other places will be taken in the next few days, Thackeray said. He was speaking with reporters after taking his first shot of the anti-Covid vaccine.

The lockdown has been imposed in all the areas that come under the Nagpur Police Commissionerate.

Two days back, a ''Janata curfew'' was imposed for three days in Jalgaon district.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new COVID-19 cases at 13,659, almost 60 per cent of the daily new cases in the country. The state continues to have the highest number of Covid cases in India.

The decision to impose stricter measures - including night curfews, has been left on the local administration in each district.

Earlier, the state health department had come up with a seven point plan to  help reduce the number of cases in the state.

India recorded 22,854 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours - the highest in two months - taking the total case load to 1,12,85,561.