Maharashtra: Complete lockdown gets imposed in Aurangabad on weekends

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the state, the district administration of Aurangabad on Saturday decided to impose lockdown on weekends until further orders.

"Complete lockdown has been imposed in Aurangabad on weekends, due to a rise in COVID-19 cases until further orders. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Aurangabad district is 57,755 including 5,569 active cases, till yesterday," informed the administration.

Further, the administration informed that they have ordered a partial lockdown in the district during weekdays till April 4.

Maharashtra government on Thursday also decided to impose a lockdown in Nagpur district from March 15 to 21. Only essential services such as vegetable and fruit shops and milk booths will stay open, according to the order issued by the Nagpur district administration.

"Maharashtra reported 13,659 new COVID-19 cases and 54 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative count of the cases in the state has reached 22,52,057. The state currently has 1,00,240 active coronavirus cases. Registering as many as 9,913 recoveries in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra's total recovery count went up to 20,99,207," the Union Health Ministry informed on Thursday morning.

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday during its weekly press conference expressed concerns over the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra and said the reduced testing, tracing and lack of COVID-19 appropriate behaviours have led to the surge in active cases in the state.

"We are very worried about Maharashtra. This is a serious matter. This has two lessons -- don't take the virus for granted and if we have to remain Covid free, then, we need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour," Member (Health), NITI Aayog Dr VK Paul said.

Echoing a similar remark, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava said Maharashtra has shown a worrisome trend.

"The mutant strain has not been found incriminating in this surge in cases. It is just related to reduced testing, tracking & tracing and COVID inappropriate behaviour and large congregations," he said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said strict lockdown measures will be enforced in some parts of the state to contain the spread of COVID-19.