Maharashtra: Amravati to be under one-week lockdown from Monday amid Covid-19 spike

Maharashtra government on Sunday announced a one-week lockdown in the state's Amravati district from Monday, 22 February owing to the rising coronavirus cases.

The lockdown, which is slated to begin from tomorrow night, will go on till March 1, 2021.

The government said only essential services will be allowed to function during the strict seven-day lockdown.

"One-week complete lockdown to remain in force in Amravati district excluding Achalpur city, beginning 8 pm tomorrow," said Cabinet Minister Yashomati Thakur.

The lockdown will be extended if people do not follow safety rules, the minister said.

Earlier today, the Maharashtra government had expressed thinking of imposing a night curfew in several districts across the state. 

This comes after the district administration in Pune shut down schools and coaching centres till February 28.

It is to be noted that though Maharashtra has been witnessing a fresh spike in coronavirus cases, the state government made it clear on Friday that the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of COVID-19 have not been detected in Yavatmal, Amravati and Satara.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases are continuously rising in the country and 14,264 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. The data shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Sunday (February 21) also said that 90 deaths were reported in the country at the same time.