New Delhi , Mar 23 : The Centre and state governments have decided to announce lockdown in 80 districts across the country where positive cases of coronavirus have been found. The government has also decided to suspended all inter-state bus services till March 31, officials said on Sunday.
The decisions have been taken at a high-level meeting attended by chief secretaries of all states and the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
State governments will issue orders allowing only essential services to operate in the 80 districts with confirmed COVID-19 cases or casualties.
With Chandigarh reporting six positive cases of COVID-19, the Union Territory Administration on Sunday ordered a lockdown imposing restrictions till March 31 including suspension of public transport to prevent spread of the infection.
The districts where lockdown was announced are from states that include Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. As per reports, Delhi government is also expected to announce a complete lockdown in the national capital where Section 144 has already been imposed.
Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and Ghaziabad which have seen positive cases of coronavirus have been put under lockdown starting March 22.
Here is the complete of 80 districts which have been put in complete lockdown:
Andhra Pradesh: Prakasam, Vijaywada and Vizag
Chandigarh: Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh: Raipur
Delhi: Central, East Delhi, North Delhi, North West Delhi, North East Delhi, South Delhi and West Delhi
Gujarat: Kutchh, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad
Haryana: Faridabad, Sonepat, Panchkula, Panipat and Gurugram
Himachal Pradesh: Kangra
Jammu & Kashmir: Srinagar and Jammu
Karnataka: Bangalore, Chikkaballapura, Mysore, Kodagu and Kalaburgi
Kerala: Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kannur, Kasargod, Kottayam, Mallapuram, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur
Ladakh: Kargil and Leh
Madhya Pradesh: Jabalpur
Maharashtra: Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Mumbai, Nagpur, Mumbai Sub-Urb, Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Thane and Yavatmal
Odisha: Khurda
Puducherry: Mahe
Punjab: Hoshiarpur, SAS Nagar and SBS Nagar
Rajasthan: Bilwara, Jhunjhunu, Sikar and Jaipur
Tamil Nadu: Chennai, Erode and Kanchipurum
Telangana: Bhadradri Kothagudam, Hyderabad, Medchai, Ranga reddy and Sanga Reddy
Uttar Pradesh: Agra, GB Nagar, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Lakhimpur Kheri and Lucknow
Uttarakhand: Dehradun
West Bengal: Kolkata and North 24 Parganas
It was noted that several state governments have already issued orders in this regard. All the chief secretaries informed that there was overwhelming and spontaneous response to the call for ‘Janata curfew’ given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The state governments may expand the list depending on their assessment of the situation.
In the meeting, it was decided to suspend all train services till March 31, including sub-urban rail services.
However, goods trains are exempted. All metro rail services were also suspended till March 31.
The total number of novel coronavirus cases in India rose to 360 on Sunday after fresh cases were reported from various parts of the country, the Union Health Ministry said.
Millions of people across the country stayed indoors, streets wore a deserted look and bare number of vehicles were on the road on Sunday in an unprecedented shutdown on Modi’s appeal for a ‘Janata curfew’ to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed over 13,000 lives worldwide.
(With PTI inputs)
