PremiumMeanwhile, state health minister Rajesh Tope said Monday that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is 'very worried' about the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and urged people to follow Covid-appropriate guidelines to avoid imposing lockdown in the state
As the novel coronavirus cases surge in the country, especially in Maharashtra, Parbhani district in the state's Marathwada region will remain under a lockdown from March 24 to March 31, a senior official said on Tuesday.
District Collector Deepak Mugalikar said the earlier measures like preventing people from stepping out of their houses at night didn't prove to be effective as the graph of new cases went up.
"The lockdown will come into force at 7 PM on Wednesday. It will be strictly implemented till March 31 with an objective to curb the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the district," he said.
Parbhani district added 1,132 new infections to its tally since March 1, taking the cumulative count to 5,843 as on March 22.
"The district administration had earlier prohibited people from stepping out of their homes in night, but the move failed to curb the cases," the collector said.
Meanwhile, state health minister Rajesh Tope said Monday that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is "very worried" about the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and urged people to follow Covid-appropriate guidelines to avoid imposing lockdown in the state.
"Chief Minister is very worried about the situation in the State. He has requested people to behave responsibly to avoid COVID, otherwise, the government will have to resort to imposing a lockdown. People must adhere to the guidelines," said Tope, according to news agency ANI.
He also informed that the numbers are increasing hence there will be a discussion with all officials.
"With the increase in the number of COVID19 cases, we will have to be more prepared. We will have to activate our Jumbo Covid centres which were active earlier," said Tope.
However, some members of the COVID-19 task force of Maharashtra had, however, opposed imposition of blanket lockdowns, saying such strategy cannot arrest the spread of virus transmission.
Maharashtra on Mondau reported 24,645 new coronavirus cases.
While the total covid-19 caseload increased to 25,04,327, the state also reported 58 deaths due tothe pathogen, taking the death toll to 53,457.
On Sunday, the state had reported its highest-ever dingle-day rise as it added 30,535 cases, while on Saturday 27,126 infections were recorded. On March 18, the state had reported 25,833 cases. The earlier high was 24,896, recorded in September.
