Total lockdown in Bihar from July 16, Bengaluru shuts down for a week

Nearly a dozen states have so far reimposed lockdown in selected areas for varying periods to check the surge in COVID-19, while Bihar on Tuesday extended the curbs to the whole of the state from July 16 to July 31.

A week-long total shutdown came into effect in Bengaluru from 8 pm on Tuesday. Karnataka's Dharwad and Dakshina Kannada districts too will come under lockdown for nine days and seven days respectively from Wednesday.

There was a huge rush of customers at grocery stores and liquor shops ahead of the lockdown.

Across the state, 41,581 people have tested positive for coronavirus including over 19,000 cases in Bengaluru.

Besides Karnataka, states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have already announced area-wise lockdown for different durations.

West Bengal on Tuesday extended the total lockdown in containment zones till July 19, the state home department said.

Sikkim also imposed total lockdown in Rongli and Pakyong sub-divisions from 6 am on Wednesday.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi announced the 15-day total lockdown in the state from July 16. A shutdown had earlier been imposed in nearly a third of its 38 districts.

The state government order, which cited a Ministry of Home Affairs communication of June 29 for containment of the pandemic, also said the decision was taken in view of the 'alarming surge in COVID 19 cases...in last three weeks'.

The state's tally rose by more than two-fold during the period.

Bihar recorded a single-day spike of 1,432 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, which pushed the total tally in the state to 18,853, the health department said.

With 28,498 fresh cases recorded in a day, India's COVID-19 tally sprinted past nine lakh on Tuesday, just three days after it crossed the eight-lakh mark. The Health Ministry said that 86 per cent of the total active cases were recorded in 10 states of the country.

Two of the most affected states are Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu which are contributing 50 per cent of the total active cases (154,134 active cases).

Karnataka, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat and Assam are the other affected states that contribute 36 per cent of the total active cases (111,068 active cases).

In Maharashtra, which has the highest number of cases at 2,67,665, a 10-day strict lockdown came into force from Monday in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. A lockdown has been imposed in Osmanabad city till July 19 to break the chain of the viral spread.

With some Haryana districts falling in the National Capital Region seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, Home Minister Anil Vij indicated that the state may also impose stricter curbs in its worst-affected areas.

Of the over 22,000 cases in the state as of Tuesday, three districts alone--Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonipat, all of which fall in the NCR, contributed to nearly 15,000 of the cases and also to nearly 75 per cent of the total fatalities.

Assam had extended the two-week lockdown imposed from June 28 in Kamrup Metropolitan district, under which Guwahati falls, by a week till July 19 from 6 pm on Sunday.

After Kashipur, a three-day lockdown has been imposed in Rudrapur and Bajpur in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand with effect from midnight Monday due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, a senior state official said.

Strict lockdown restrictions were reimposed in most parts of Kashmir, including in the city here, on Monday after a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in the valley over the past one week, officials said.

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to implement strict restrictions across the state on weekends to check the spread of coronavirus, joining Karnataka and Tamil Nadu which have been imposing Sunday lockdown.

The UP government on Tuesday issued detailed directives for the weekend lockdown.

All urban and rural haats, markets, galla mandis and business establishments in Uttar Pradesh would remain closed during the period, it said.

Tamil Nadu had earlier imposed lockdown for varying periods in Chennai, Madurai and nearby regions. Tamil Nadu has the second highest number of cases in the country.

The Arunachal Pradesh government had on Saturday extended the lockdown in the capital region for another week till 5 pm on July 20 in view of the spurt in COVID-19 cases in the region.

The Meghalaya government had imposed a lockdown in Shillong from 6 am on Monday till Wednesday 6 AM.

The lockdown will not be extended further as contact-tracing in identified clusters has been completed, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said on Tuesday.

West Bengal had imposed strict lockdown in containment areas and nearby buffer zones from July 9 evening.

These zones are located in and around Kolkata, besides Jalpaiguri, Malda, Cooch Behar, Raiganj and Siliguri.