Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday announced a statewide lockdown till May 15 amid the rise in Covid-19 cases.
The announcement came hours after Patna High Court directed the Bihar government to impose a lockdown warning that otherwise the court may step in.The decision was taken a day after a high-level meeting with all ministers and top officials was held to take a call on the matter.
After discussion with the associate ministers and officials yesterday, it was decided to implement the lockdown in Bihar by May 15, 2021. In relation to its detailed guidelines and other activities, today the Crisis management group has been instructed to take action, the chief minister said in his Twitter post.
Bihar has reported 11,407 fresh Covid-19 cases and 82 deaths, taking the state’s overall tally to over 5.09 lakh and more than 2,800 fatalities. Of 82 new deaths, Patna accounted for 24 casualties while Muzaffarpur recorded 13 fatalities, Madhepura recorded 6 and West Champaran reported 5.
Among the 11,407 new cases, Patna, the worst-hit city, accounted for 2028. Other districts like Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai recorded 662 cases, 653 and 510 Covid-19 cases respectively.
Earlier, in view of the surging Covid infection in the state, the Bihar government had imposed a night curfew till March 15.
The state administration had also announced free vaccination for all adults. So far, 72,658 beneficiaries were administered jabs on Monday while a total of 74,18,981 people have been inoculated in the 45-plus age group to date. The inoculation of those above 18 years age is yet to commence in the state due to the non-availability of the additional stock.
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Meanwhile, India is recording more than 3 lakh cases over the past few weeks.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi , in a tweet, suggested that the only way to stop the spread of the virus is a full lockdown. Even the US government said that it was the only way to stem the world’s worst virus outbreak.