English
Bhopal: In an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state, the Madhya Pradesh government on Friday night decided to impose Sunday lockdown in five more cities. The cities where the Sunday lockdown will be imposed include Vidisha, Ujjain, Gwalior, Narsinghpur and Saunsar. It must be noted that the Sunday lockdown is already in force in Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Betul, Chhindwara, Ratlam and Khargone. With this, now Sunday lockdown is in place in 12 cities and towns of the state in the wake of rising cases of the pandemic.
The development comes as the state on Friday reported 2,091 new COVID-19 cases, taking its case tally to 2,84,265. However, 9 fatalities increased the death toll to 3,937. According to an official, the positivity rate for the last one week was 6.3 per cent, more than the national average of 4.6 per cent.
The decision to extend Sunday restrictions to five more cities was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
During the Sunday lockdown, the state government decided to close shops in all hotspot cities at 9 PM daily, instead of the earlier ordered 10 PM to 6 AM. Notably, the Sunday lockdown in the 12 cities and towns will be effective from Saturday 9 PM to Monday at 6 AM.
During the meeting, the chief minister said at the meeting that the government has adopted a three-pronged strategy — taking all possible measures to check the spread of infection, ensuring best treatment of infected patients and to aim for vaccination of the entire state as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, Indore’s caseload rose by 612 to reach 66,569, while that of Bhopal reached 49,029 with the addition of 425 cases.
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