Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur to go into Lockdown from 21 March

It's indeed deja vu, as almost a year after Madhya Pradesh reported its first COVID-19 case on 20 March 2020. And therefore, the lockdown has been announced in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur on Friday night. The decision comes amid a massive wave of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra with which the state shares its border. It is further informed that the three cities will remain shut from 10 pm on 20 March to 6 am on 22 March and that the schools and colleges will remain shut till March 31, the state government said on Friday. Moreover, the three districts in MP reported the highest cases of fresh infections in the last fortnight.

On Friday, the MP government reported 1,140 coronavirus cases, which took its total of cases to 2,73,097, with the active cases over 6600. Additionally, the state has witnessed an increase of 7 death count presently, while 3,901 people have died at the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, it was reported on Friday that Indore (309 cases), Bhopal (272 cases) and Jabalpur (97 cases) were the worst-affected cities. Whereas Maharashtra logged 25,681 cases yesterday, which is over 60% of daily cases countrywide. Furthermore, MP had reported 25,833 fresh cases on Thursday - the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the chief ministers of states in preventing the country to reach its second pandemic peak, on Thursday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared several restrictions in the state. CM tweeted "COVID is spreading in Indore, Bhopal, and Jabalpur. Therefore, there will be a lockdown in these cities from 10 pm on Sunday to 6 am on Monday. #COVID19 cannot be stopped without public support. Therefore, all of you are urged to wear a mask and follow the social distance and guidelines."

On Thursday, the state government held inter-state bus services between MP and Maharashtra from March 21 to March 31. Furthermore, the marketplace will remain closed from 10 pm to 6 am. Under the new rules, In addition to this, he also asked the officials to increase the number of vaccinations to 5 lakh per day.

In fact, this decision was decided at an emergency meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday evening. Understanding the seriousness of the COVID-19, Chouhan conducted the meet soon after returning from campaigning for the BJP in West Bengal and Assam. Principal Secretary Health Md Suleman, Director-General of Police Vivek Jauhri and PS Home Rajesh Rajora attended the urgent meeting. It is then reported that schools and colleges will remain shut in these three cities till March 31.

Apart from Bhopal, Indore, and Jabalpur, other districts in MP have also emphasised strict measures against violation of safety norms including the use of facial masks.