Increasing Cases: Lockdown Warning For Two States

With a slump in the number of Covid-19 cases, the whole country is relaxed, and not many people are wearing masks in public places. Last week has seen a sudden rise in the number of cases in few states and the respective governments are warning of a lockdown, a total lockdown indeed if needed.

Maharastra has been seeing a sudden increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, the state’s Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has issued a stern warning to the people of the state that there will be a total lockdown if people don’t start wearing facemasks. He said that lockdown will start from tomorrow evening wherever needed. CM Thackeray said, ‘Lockdown will not start all of a sudden. We aren’t putting a stop to any development works.’

The Maha CM also said he was monitoring the residents for the next 15 days and if Covid-19 norms were not followed, he would be left without a choice but to reimpose a lockdown in the state. He said the coming eight days will decide whether there will be a lockdown in the state as daily covid cases continue to rise.

A similar warning has been issued by the Karnataka government as well. Bengaluru municipal agency Manjunath Prasad said if the people in the state don’t observe social distancing, then imposing a lockdown will be the only option left. However, the State’s Health Minister K Sudhakar ruled out the possibility if another lockdown in Karnataka. He said with a population of 13 million in the city of Bengaluru, there are 200 to 300 cases in a day, but the main concern is sharing the border with two states Kerala and Maharashtra where the cases are much higher in number.

The Karnataka government has already pushed forward the standard operating procedures for those traveling into the state from Kerala and Maharashtra to produce a mandatory negative RT-PCR certificate with a rise in Covid cases in these two states.