As the nation continues with the second phase of the vaccination drive, Nagpur will be going under a 7-day “strict lockdown” from March 15 to 21. The announcement came from the District Guardian Minister Nitin Raut on March 11 after Nagpur reported a spike in the COVID-19 cases.

According to Raut, only essential services (vegetable shops, milk booths and pharmacies) will continue operating under the lockdown. All the private offices, non-essential shops and businesses will be shut while government offices will continue working with 25% of the workforce. Mr. Raut also announced that liquor will be sold online at certain spots in the city and asked people to not go out of their houses unnecessarily.

On March 10, Nagpur reported 1,860 fresh cases which put the district’s tally at 1,64,698 confirmed cases. Moreover, 8 people lost their lives due to the COVID-19 virus. Meanwhile, India’s most densely populated state Maharashtra recorded 13,659 fresh COVID-19 cases which was the highest one-day spike in 2021. The number took the state’s overall case tally to 22,52,057 cases. A total of 52,610 people have lost their lives while 23,17,696 people have been already vaccinated as of March 10.

Districts in the Vidarbha region have been seeing a sharp surge in the COVID-19 cases since the second week of February. On March 10, Amravati recorded 554 new COVID-19 cases while Yavatmal, Akola and Buldhana recorded 429, 391 and 385 cases.

Maharashtra CM Warns Citizens through ‘Saamna’

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took to the former’s mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ and warned Maharashtra citizens of another lockdown that may come their way. “Take care, else lockdown or strict restrictions are unavoidable,” the editorial said. The editorial also touched upon how India has been reporting COVID-19 cases and Maharashtra has been contributing in the tally for the most part which was a concern for the authorities. The editorial also urged people to maintain self-discipline and put self-restrictions to avoid the lockdown.

This came after Maharashtra Chief Minister hinted that more regions of his state could go into another lockdown. After receiving the first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine, Mr. Thackeray considered the lockdown inevitable and said that his team will be making the decision in the next few days.

“In the coming days, there might be some places where a lockdown is inevitable. We will take the decision in the next couple of days,” said CM Thackeray.

It should be noted that CM Thackeray has left the local Mumbai administration to take the call regarding the next lockdown. A Maharashtra minister spoke to the news and said that the possibility of stricter restrictions in Mumbai and other regions of Maharashtra can’t be ruled out due to the rising COVID-19 cases.

Mumbai Guardian Minister spoke to reporters and said, “If the spike in COVID-19 cases continues, there is a possibility of night clubs being closed down first in the city (Mumbai). We cannot rule out the possibility of a night curfew or partial lockdown.” One would recall that just last month Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had issued a similarly worded warning for Mumbai citizens and said how it was in the hands of people.

Maharashtra’s 7-Point Containment Strategy

Meanwhile, to curb the rising COVID-19 cases, Dr Pradeep Vyas, Maharashtra Health Department Secretary along with a team of experts has come up with a 7-point COVID-19 containment strategy. The 7-point plan includes – testing of close contacts, fast contact-tracing, mass testing in hot-spots, death audits. According to State Surveillance Officer Pradeep Awate, the 7-point plan not only applies to districts and regions that are reporting a high number of cases, but to every region in Maharashtra.

Dr Subhash Salunke, part of the expert team, said how frontline workers like medical practitioners have also been ignoring the unanimously agreed-upon protocols of home-isolation of patients. He also added that citizens must adhere to the ‘SMS’ strategy meaning, sanitizing, mask-wearing and social distancing. “All non-essential services should be controlled and all large gatherings should be discouraged,” Mr Salunke added.

As per the plan, all the districts in Maharashtra have been instructed to initiate an institutional quarantine or isolation facilities for patients that have been home-isolating on an everyday basis. The plan also instructs authorities to ensure that citizens adhere to the COVID-19 safety norms during the social, political and religious gathering.

 

Also read: Marathawada reports 1,111 COVID-19 cases; Aurangabad reports 459 cases