By Express News Service
BHOPAL: With a total of 2091 new COVID-19 cases reported across the state during the last 24 hours, taking the total active cases count to 12,038; Madhya Pradesh announced imposing Sunday lock-down in five more cities and towns.
The decision to impose Sunday lock-down in five more cities and towns, including Narsinghpur, Gwalior, Vidisha, Ujjain and Saunsar was taken at the COVID situation review meeting chaired by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhopal on Friday evening.
With this, now Sunday lock-down will be effective in 12 cities and towns of the state in the wake of rising cases of the pandemic, which have doubled within a week. The seven other cities and towns, where Sunday lock-down was already in place, included Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Khargone, Ratlam, Chhindwara and Betul.
The state government also decided to close shops in all hotspot cities at 9 pm daily, instead of the earlier ordered 10 pm to 6 am. Resultantly, Sunday lock-down in the 12 cities and towns will be effective from Saturday 9 pm to Monday at 6 am.
Over the last 24 hours, out of the 2091 new cases, a maximum of 612 were reported in Indore, followed by 425 in Bhopal and 156 in Jabalpur. The spike of 612 cases in Indore was the highest single-day spike in MP’s most populated city since the first COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020. Prior to this fresh spike, a maximum single-day spike of 595 cases was reported in Indore on December 1, 2020.
As many as 1,048 people were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the count of recoveries in Madhya Pradesh to 2,68,290, he added.
Amid a surge, only one out of 52 districts in the state did not report a new case during the day.
Two deaths each were reported from Indore and Jabalpur and one each from Khargone, Sagar, Ujjain, Chhindwara and Sheopur, the official said.
“Indore’s caseload rose by 612 to reach 66,569, while that of Bhopal reached 49,029 with the addition of 425 cases. The active caseload in the two cities is 2,718 and 3,195 respectively. With 28,504 samples being examined since Wednesday evening, the number of coronavirus tests in MP crossed 62.70 lakh,” he said.
Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 2,84,265, new cases 2,091 death toll 3,937, recovered 2,68,290, active cases 12,038 number of tests conducted so far 62,70,328.
(With PTI Inputs)