Washim & Akola too impose stricter restrictions after Covid cases surge

Nagpur: After a fresh surge in new Covid cases in Amravati division; three districts — Amravati, Washim and Akola — have announced even stricter lockdown-like restrictions from Sunday onwards.
All shops, including essentials will remain closed. No customer will visit any shop in any condition. Only home delivery of essentials during four morning hours will be allowed.Delivery executives must carry the RT-PCR negative report.
The pandemic picture is now clear in the region with cases declining sharply in Nagpur and increasing equally in rural areas of Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Washim, Buldhana, Chandrapur and Wardha. As far as Bhandara and Gondia districts are concerned, both districts have declined the number of daily tests to a significant level due to which the number of new cases are down there.
On Friday, the day’s new cases in Vidarbha were 12,394. Recoveries are more due to Nagpur’s major share. On Friday, 14,395 patients recovered. Now, 7.96 lakh cases out of 9.48 lakh have recovered. Total 223 patients died in 11 districts of the region. With Nagpur city (47), Nagpur rural (21) and other state patients in Nagpur (13), Nagpur district together reported 79 deaths. With Wardha (25), Chandrapur (23), Yavatmal (23), Gadchiroli (17), Buldhana (13), Amravati (11), Akola (11) and Bhandara (11), the strict lockdown-like restrictions are expected to be imposed in some more districts from Sunday.
Barring Akola and Washim, all three districts in Amravati division reported more than 1,000 new cases on Friday. In Nagpur Division, Chandrapur reported 1,449 cases out of just 3,694 tests done in the last 24 hours. Test positivity in Bhandara and Gondia is also on the rise which confirms that Covid is now spreading in the rural areas of Vidarbha. In Nagpur, the number of cases as well as under-treatment patients is declining. The positivity rate is also declining in Nagpur as the test count is increasing.
On Friday, 61,404 tests were conducted in Vidarbha region with 22,298 of them in Nagpur district alone. Total 1.36 lakh patients are now under treatment. All districts in Amravati division barring Washim have more than 5,000 patients under treatment. Chandrapur has more than 15,000 patients under treatment. Amravati at 9,961 is nearing the five-figure ‘active cases’ mark.
Akola: Total 4,254 tests were conducted in Akola on Friday. Out of them, 714 tested positive. 11 deaths were reported. Most of them were in Akola rural. Now, the district has 44,515 cases, 37,348 recoveries and 765 deaths reported till date. 6,402 patients are under treatment.
Washim: 597 new cases, 330 recoveries and 7 deaths were reported in Washim on Friday. The total case load has now reached 31,114 and death toll 331. Total 4,511 patients are under treatment in the district.
Buldhana: The district was reporting less than 800 cases constantly for the last three days, but a sudden spike was reported on Friday. Total 1,103 new cases were reported. 13 patients died in a day.
Gondia: The district conducted 1,343 tests in the last 24 hours and 364 of them were positive. 555 patients recovered in a day and 3 died. Total 4,245 patients are under treatment.
Bhandara: Out of 2,226 tests done in the last 24 hours, Bhandara district reported 731 new cases which means almost 33% positivity rate. Total 1,205 patients recovered from the district while 11 patients died. Now, Bhandara has 7,547 patients under treatment.
Gadchiroli: With 427 new cases, 611 recoveries and 17 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, Gadchiroli district now has 24,587 cases, 19,687 recoveries and 506 deaths reported till date. Total 4,394 patients are under treatment.
Wardha: The district registered 25 deaths and 788 cases. Meanwhile, 699 were discharged on Friday.
Amravati: A spike of 1,125 saw the caseload reaching 73,008 while 11 deaths took the toll to 1,080.
Chandrapur: There were 1,449 cases, 1,642 recoveries and 23 deaths which took the toll to 1,059.
Yavatmal: While 23 deaths were reported, there were 1,330 who tested Covid positive on Friday.