These Indian states are still imposing lockdown in August to curb the spread of coronavirus

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced that to keep the COVID-19 situation under control, the state government would like to continue the lockdown till August 15.

“We’d like to continue with some restrictions, at least till August 15 because we don’t want to loosen our grip on the situation which is improving. If we can maintain our current testing trend, which has been very encouraging, we might even flatten the coronavirus curb by August 15,”Sarma said.

The Maharashtra government has extended the lockdown till August 31, but assured gradual easing as part of ‘Mission Begin Again’, an official announcement said on Wednesday.

The development came hours after the Central government released guidelines for ‘Unlock 3.0’. The state government has decided to continue all precautions as announced earlier, but gradually, restrictions are likely to be lifted during the month.

Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua is the second district after Jammu to announce a weekend lockdown for an indefinite period.

The restrictions will begin at 5 pm on all Fridays and will last till 6 am on Mondays, the authorities said.

The Bihar government extended the lockdown in the urban areas till August 16. According to the new guidelines, there would be additional restrictions, in-state headquarters, district headquarters, sub-divisional headquarters, block headquarters, and all municipal areas in the state.

Lockdown in coronavirus-hit urban areas of Chhattisgarh, including its capital Raipur, has been extended till August 6.

“We had to take the decision to enforce lockdown in urban areas to contain the spread of the infection. People should take lockdown seriously,” Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said in a video message.

The Jharkhand government on Thursday extended the lockdown restrictions due to COVID-19 outside the containment zones till August 31. An official notification also issued directions to departments concerned for strict implementation of guidelines and state directives on COVID-19.

“... Hereby orders extension of lockdown-related restrictions currently in place in the state of Jharkhand outside the containment zone(s) up to 31.08.2020 due to COVID-19,” the notification issued by Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh said.

On July 28, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation decided to continue the lockdown with certain relaxations in non-containment wards until further orders.

Earlier the city was under ‘triple lockdown’ since July 5 following a spike in the number of coronavirus cases and patients through contacts.

Manipur authorities yesterday (July 30) extended the complete lockdown in the entire state till August 6.

The state had been witnessing complete lockdown since July 23 after the reports of COVID-19 detection amongst a few people who have no travel history outside the state.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb-led government has decided to extend the lockdown till 5 am on August 4, to curb the spread of the virus.

In a televised address, the CM said continuous lockdown is required to break the chain of transmission, and it should continue for at least eight days consecutively.

The Nagaland government on Thursday (July 30) decided to extend the ongoing lockdown measures in the state by a month till August 31.

The government also decided to notify a single Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all the districts to contain the spread of the virus.

The Arunachal Pradesh government has extended the total lockdown in the Capital Complex till August 3 in the wake of the spurt in COVID-19 cases in the region.

“The district administration needs more time to control the local transmission by undertaking antigen tests on all primary and secondary contacts of the COVID-19 patients, Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar said, justifying the extension.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Thursday(July 30) announced the extension of coronavirus lockdown till August 31, with certain relaxations in the existing restrictions.

The state has also imposed a total lockdown without any relaxations on all the Sundays in August.

Weekend lockdown in Uttar Pradesh will continue even as the Yogi Adityanath-led government is set to follow the Unlock 3 guidelines issued by the central government.

The lockdown will continue in the containment zones till August 31. The night curfew in non-containment zones, however, has been lifted.

The Andaman and Nicobar administration has decided to impose a complete lockdown on weekends, beginning August 1 to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The strict restrictions will be in force on Saturdays and Sundays till the COVID-19 situation improves in the Union Territory, Chief Secretary, Chetan B Sanghi, said in an order issued on Tuesday (July 28).

Earlier this week, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended the bi-weekly partial lockdown till August 31 across the state.

She said there would be no lockdown in the state on August 1 and August 3 on the occasion of Bakr-id and Raksha Bandhan. Banerjee said that all the government and private offices, commercial establishments, public and private transport would remain closed during the lockdown.