Nagpur lockdown: Here’s what’s allowed and what isn’t

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A week-long lockdown to curb the resurgence of COVID-19 started in Maharashtra’s Nagpur on March 15. The lockdown, imposed in the jurisdiction of the Nagpur City Police Commissionerate, will go on till at least March 21.

The announcement was made by Nagpur’s Guardian Minister Nitin Raut on March 11 amid the following weeks of rising COVID-19 cases in Nagpur and the rest of the state.

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> The guidelines are similar to those imposed during the nationwide lockdown in March 2020.

> Only essential services such as grocery, dairy and medical shops will be allowed to remain open.

> All private offices will remain closed. Government offices will work at 25 percent capacity.

> Weekly markets and shopping malls will remain closed.

> Social, religious, political and all other types of large gatherings will not be permitted. Theatres and sports events with spectators will also not be allowed.

> Nagpur Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told news agency Reuters that officers will be watching traffic to stop unnecessary journeys and checking that most offices and shops, apart from groceries and pharmacies, stay closed. “It’s a curfew except for the essential services.”

> The Times of India quoted the police commissioner as saying that only one person would be allowed on bikes and two in cars (one passenger sitting behind the driver). People who are required to travel to work have been urged to carry their organisation’s identity card, which would be considered as ‘passes’.

> Schools, colleges, and other educational institutions will remain closed. Online classes will continue.

> News reports have quoted Raut as saying that liquor will only be sold online.

About 3,000 police personnel will be deployed to enforce the curfew in Nagpur from March 15, Reuters reported citing officials.

Having flattened the curve of COVID-19 cases by January-February, the state has witnessed a sharp rise in infections over the last three-four weeks.

On March 14, Maharashtra reported 16,620 new COVID-19 cases from the previous 24-hour period. This number was around just 2,500 in the initial weeks of February. The total number of confirmed cases in the state stood at 23.14 lakh. With more than 52,800 deaths, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

While over 21.34 lakh patients have recovered, around 1.26 lakh cases remain ‘active’ in the state.

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