BHOPAL :The Madhya Pradesh government today decided to extend the lockdown in several cities, including commercial hub Indore, till April 19 amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the state, an official said.
Besides, the lockdown in some other districts has been extended till April 22, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajesh Rajora informed, according to news agency PTI.
Speaking on the extension, Rajora said, "Lockdown will be in force in Indore city, Rau, Mhow, Shajapur city and some districts like Ujjain, Barwani, Rajgarh and Vidisha till 6am on April 19."
Lockdown will be in force from April 12 till the morning of April 22 in Balaghat, Narsinghpur and Seoni districts as well as Jabalpur city, and orders under section 144 of CrPC will be issued by respective collectors soon, Rajora added.
At present, the lockdown is in force in all urban areas of the state till 6 am till April 12.
The decision to extend the lockdown was taken at a meeting held by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with district crisis management committees via video conferencing.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today said the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state might reach one lakh by the end of this month given the spike in infection count. He made the statement while speaking to mediapersons.
"The way there is a spike in coronavirus infection cases, the number of active cases in Madhya Pradesh may reach one lakh by the end of this month. We will try to stop this in the middle as we have started adopting some measures, including lockdown," he said.
Till Friday night, the number of active cases in Madhya Pradesh was 30,486, while its caseload reached 3,27,220.
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