February 22, 2021: Amravati in Maharashtra will be placed under a week-long curfew from 8 pm on Monday due to the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in the district.

The district administration stated that only shops selling essentials commodities will be allowed to remain open during the curfew from 8 am to 3 pm.

Shailesh Naval, District Collector Amaravati said, "A curfew will be imposed in Amravati Municipal Corporation and Achalpur Municipal Council limits from 8 pm on February 22 to 6 am on March 1. During this curfew, only essentials shops will be open from 8 am to 3 pm".

Maharashtra reported 6,971 new COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to the state health department, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra has reached 21,00,884 with the addition of new cases. The death toll in the state has risen to 51,788 with the addition of 35 deaths.

Owing to the spike in COVID-19 cases in the state, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray informed that the coming eight days will decide whether there will be a lockdown in the state.

On Saturday, BMC fined a total of 16,154 people for not wearing face masks at public places in Mumbai. Rs 32,30,800 has been collected by BMC on this single-day drive. Most of the people were fined at places like restaurants, theatres, gyms and clubs.