Covid-19: Night curfew to be imposed in Maharashtra from today

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who announced the night curfew, has asked people to be more vigilant for the next 15 days

Maharashtra will impose a seven-hour night curfew for 15 days from Tuesday in all major cities between 11 pm and 6 am to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. This effectively means the New Year parties and functions will be restricted.

Covid-19 tests being administered to passengers arriving from Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan and Gujarat, at a railway station in Mumbai. (ANI)

The move to impose the curfew comes as a precautionary measure considering mutations found in British samples of the coronavirus that may help the virus spread more easily.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who announced the night curfew, has asked people to be more vigilant for the next 15 days.

Maharashtra on Monday recorded 2,834 Covid-19 cases that took the state’s tally to 18,99,352. The state crossed the 1.8 million cases on November 26. The state has been reporting fewer than 5,000 cases for 17 consecutive days. Officials said they have been taking all precautions as a potential second wave may hit the state in January.

“There is no doubt that our situation is showing an improvement as we are getting less Covid cases. This is the reason, the period of completing one lakh cases is increasing if compared with the previous figures,” said a health official.

The active cases in the state have reduced to 59,469. They account for 3.13% of the cases reported so far. The toll from the pandemic mounted to 48,801 on Monday as 55 fresh deaths were reported.