After months of showing a downward trend, India is once again experiencing a fresh spike in the COVID-19 cases. Breaking all past records, India registered its biggest-ever single-day spike with 200,739 fresh cases today. With this, India’s active Covid-19 tally shot up to more than 1.41 crore cases.
This unprecedented second wave has compelled many states to impose lockdown like restrictions to limit the movement of the people and thus bring down the infections being caused by the deadly contagion.
Below are the state-wise details of COVID-19 restrictions:
Maharashtra
Though several states in the entire country are recording an alarmingly high number of coronavirus cases, the situation in Maharashtra is the most worrisome, with the state alone accounting for almost 45% of the total cases in the country. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday (April 13) announced that there will be no lockdown in the state but lockdown like restrictions will be imposed from 8 pm on Wednesday, April 14 for at least 15 days.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 have been imposed till May 1, and no person will be allowed in a public place without any valid reason. All establishments, public spaces, activities and services will remain closed, except for essential services that will remain open between 7 am and 8 pm on working days.
Shooting for films, serials and advertisements will remain closed, and only 25 people will be allowed at marriages.
Public transport, including trains and bus services, and essential services like groceries, vegetable shops, fruit vendors, dairies, bakeries, confectioneries, all types of food outlets and public utilities, will be open.
The CM said that a total of 2 lakh police personnel will be on the streets of Maharashtra to enforce the curfew. An additional force of 13,200 home guards and 22 companies of State Reserve Police Force, including three companies for Mumbai and two for Pune, will be deployed as per requirement.
Delhi
Similarly, the Delhi government on Thursday announced stricter curbs to curtail the recent influx of COVID-19 cases in the national capital. Addressing the media, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that a weekend curfew will remain in effect from 10 pm on Friday till 6 am on Monday. The weekend curfew comes in addition to the 8-hour night curfew already in effect in the national capital.
Shopping malls, gyms, spas and auditoriums will remain closed till April 30. Meanwhile, cinema halls will be allowed to operate will 30 per cent capacity. Restaurants will not be allowed to provide dine-in service and only home delivery of food will be allowed during the new curbs.
Further, essential services will be allowed during the weekend lockdown and people going to weddings, which are already planned, will be provided with curfew passes.
Kejriwal added that one weekly market per day per municipal zone will be allowed to operate to arrest spread of coronavirus.
Karnataka
The cumulative caseload in Karnataka’s Bengaluru surpassed the 5 lakh mark on Wednesday with 8,155 new infections. To control the scourge the BJP government in Karnataka has announced several other stringent measures apart from the already imposed night curfew in some cities.
The state government had earlier announced a 10-day night curfew, starting from April 10, from 10 pm to 5 am in Bengaluru, Mysore, Mangalore, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Tumkur and Udupi-Manipal.
Bengaluru police have decided to ban the use of swimming pools, gyms, party halls, and other such amenities in apartment buildings within the city.
The government said that travellers coming from states like Kerala, Punjab, Maharashtra and Chandigarh will be required to carry a negative RT-PCR report.
The number of telephone lines operated by Bengaluru’s municipal body the BBMP will be doubled soon to enable more public access to the 24-hour Covid-19 helpline operating in the city.
Odisha
The Odisha government has also tightened the Covid restrictions in the state and announced to impose night curfew in urban areas across the state starting tomorrow.
According to the latest information, in 10 districts bordering Chhattisgarh, namely Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri, the State government changed the timings of night curfew. As per the decision, the night curfew in the urban areas in these districts would be from 6 pm to 5 am tomorrow. However, the night curfew timings for rural areas in these 10 districts will remain unchanged from 10 pm to 5 in the morning.
Also, night curfew will come into force in urban areas of 20 more districts including Bhubaneswar and Cuttack from 9 pm to 5 am from tomorrow.
In another major decision, the Odisha government decided to impose a weekend lockdown in the urban areas of these 10 bordering districts from April 17.
Uttar Pradesh
On Monday (April 12), the Uttar Pradesh government imposed a night curfew in Shravasti district of the state from 9 pm to 6 am till April 18.
A night curfew has also been imposed in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Allahabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar districts and the Lucknow Municipal Corporation area of the state.
Madhya Pradesh
In view of the rising cases of COVID-19, the Bhopal ‘Crisis Management Group’ on Monday (April 12) decided to impose a ‘Corona Curfew’ in the city.
The Corona curfew will be imposed from April 13 to April 19, till 6 am, reported ANI.
Daily activities will, however continue inhindered. Inter-state & inter-district movement of essential services will also be allowed in the state.
Gujarat
A night curfew will be imposed in 20 main cities of Gujarat from 8 pm to 6 am till April 30. All gatherings, rallies or meetings have been banned.
These cities include – Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagarh, Gandhinagar, Anand, Nadiad, Mehsana, Surat, Morvi, Patan, Godhra, Dahod, Gandhidham, Bharuch, Surendranagar, and Amreli.
The Gujarat High Court held that all kinds of gatherings, including political functions, should be controlled or stopped. The Sabarmati Ashram has also been closed for visitors.
Jammu and Kashmir
A night curfew has been imposed in urban areas of eight districts, namely, Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam, Anantnag and Kupwara.
