9 more dists under lockdown as Covid rages in Chhattisgarh
- | Monday | 12th April, 2021
RAIPUR: Nine more districts went into lockdown, putting more than half of Chhattisgarh’s population behind barricades. While Raipur and neighbouring Durg district are already in lockdown, Jashpur, Koriya and Baloda Bazar will go into eight days’ shutdown from Sunday. Raigarh, Dhamtari and Korba will be under 10 days’ lockdown from Monday. And 10 days’ lockdown was imposed on Saturday evening in Rajnandgaon, Bemetara and Balod.
RAIPUR: Nine more districts went into lockdown, putting more than half of Chhattisgarh’s population behind barricades. While Raipur and neighbouring Durg district are already in lockdown, Jashpur, Koriya and Baloda Bazar will go into eight days’ shutdown from Sunday. Raigarh, Dhamtari and Korba will be under 10 days’ lockdown from Monday. And 10 days’ lockdown was imposed on Saturday evening in Rajnandgaon, Bemetara and Balod.
Restrictions have been imposed in these districts because of the alarmingly high number of new infections being reported here. Nearly half of the state’s active case tally of 76,868 are in Raipur (18,660) and Durg (18,374). The locked down districts have nearly 80% of Chhattisgarh’s active cases —7,543 in Rajnandgaon, 2,646 in Bemetara, 2,311 in Korba, 2,255 in Baloda Bazaar, 1,974 in Balod, 1,801 in Dhamtari, 1,467 in Raigarh, 1,292 in Jashpur and 636 in Koriya.
The lockdown rules are the same in all districts. Milk parlours and newspaper delivery will be allowed from 6am-8 am and 6pm-7.30pm. Medical shops and petrol pumps will be operational, but strict Covid protocol has to be maintained. Petrol pumps will service only ambulances, ATM vans, mediapersons and government officers. No one will be allowed on the streets. Only for those involved in essential services, including medical workers, government officials, journalists, newspaper hawkers and milkmen, and students going for exams will be allowed. They will all need to carry ID cards or exam admit cards.
All shops, vegetable vends, provision stores, liquor shops, commercial and departmental zones, temples and tourism sites will be shut, the order said. So will all markets and offices. The district borders will be sealed and movement of vehicles will be restricted. The state government will start RTPCR testing facility at airports and railway stations. It is mandatory for passengers arriving by plane to have a negative RT-PCR report no older than 72 hours. Those who do not have it, will be tested at the airport itself.
Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel took a review meeting on the Covid situation and said that the state government has made better arrangements for vaccination, testing and treatment of patients. “The government is making dedicated efforts to provide relief to patients. There is no shortage of ventilators and oxygen beds and adequate funds are available for Covid prevention drives,” the CM assured.
Steps are being taken to expand and intensify Covid screening, treatment and vaccination. Baghel said he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set the minimum age of vaccination at 18 years. Testing facility in rural areas would be further expanded to prevent the spread of COVID infection there. tnn
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