A lockdown has been announced in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur. The three cities will remain shut from 10 pm on Saturday to 6 am on Monday, and their schools and colleges will remain closed till March 31, the state government said on Friday. The announcement comes amid a massive surge of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra with which the state shares its border.
Madhya Pradesh on Friday reported 1,140 coronavirus cases, which took its total of cases to 2,73,097. The state now has over 6600 active cases.
The state's death count witnessed an increase of 7 today. 3,901 people have died in Madhya Pradesh since the start of the pandemic.
Indore (309 cases), Bhopal (272 cases) and Jabalpur (97 cases) were the worst-affected cities on Friday.
Maharashtra on Friday logged 25,681 cases, which is over 60 per cent of today's countrywide total of daily cases. The state had logged 25,833 fresh cases on Thursday - highest since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced several restrictions in the state, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the chief ministers of states to not allow the country reach to its second coronavirus peak.
Mr Chouhan ordered that bus service to and from Maharashtra be stopped from March 20.
Under the new rules, markets in parts of Madhya Pradesh will remain closed from 10 pm to 6 am.
He also asked officials to increase the number of vaccinations to 5 lakh per day.
With coronavirus spreading fast once again, economic activities cannot be halted to control it, the Chief Minister said at an online meeting on Thursday with district officials and doctors.
