Over 2,200 Covid cases per day, Nagpur city goes under week-long lockdown

Nagpur city and adjoining areas under the city police commissionerate went under a week-long lockdown on Monday, with only essential services remaining open.

Nagpur is the first city in the country to go under lockdown during the second wave of Covid-19 cases.

Local residents, however, did come out earlier in the day citing various “urgent” reasons for doing so, but they had a tough time trying to convince police personnel about the genuineness of their reasons. By Monday afternoon, however, police started implementing the lockdown strictly, leading to substantial thinning of people on the roads. Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar and all his deputies from various zones were out on the streets to personally supervise the implementation of the lockdown.

Many violators were penalised by the police. (Express photo by Dhananjay Khedkar)

Many violators of the lockdown were penalised. According to information provided by Nagpur Police, a total fine of Rs 1,37,200 was collected from 464 violators, who were either not wearing masks or not maintaining social distance.

Nagpur had seen over 2,200 new cases for the second consecutive day on Sunday, making it the biggest Covid hotspot in Maharashtra. On Monday, the city reported 2,297 new cases and 12 deaths.

Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B, however, told The Indian Express, “It wasn’t a lockdown as is being projected by media. We have only extended the restrictions. Offices and industries were open… there was no curfew. The idea was to just avoid crowding,” adding, “But people cooperated well and the response was more or less as per our expectations.”

Meanwhile, vaccination work went on as usual. Nagpur Municipal Corporation Health Officer Sanjay Dhikkar said, “Vaccination has been going on as usual and with same level of enthusiasm, as seen earlier.”

Earlier, several traders’ organisations had voiced their opposition to the government decision of lockdown, saying it serves little purpose but causes great economic loss to people. They had also met District Guardian Minister Nitin Raut but the latter had refused to entertain their plea.

As the current lockdown follows the weekend lockdown announced earlier, residents of Nagpur have mixed feelings about the measure as it has effectively been stretched to nine days instead of seven.