JOIN USCovid-19: Maharashtra may adopt the 'Amravati pattern'
The Amravati district of the Vidarbha region was among the first districts of India to be hit by the second wave of Covid-19. However, within a month, things started returning to normalcy, thanks to the two-week-long strict lockdown.
As Maharashtra reels under an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases, the government is mulling a short but strict lockdown or the Amravati pattern.
“There was a surge of cases in Amravati in February. To combat the situation, we decided to start with weekend curfew called janata curfew. Then we went in for a total lockdown for 10 to 12 days,” said Women and Child Development Minister Yashomati Thakur, who is the guardian minister of Amravati district.
“This decision was taken on 26 February….we had cases shooting up above 1,000 to 1,200 cases per day, however, after the brief lockdown, we could bring it to the level of 250 to 300 cases per day. We now have control over the situation,” said Thakur, a senior Congress leader. “We have now patients from Nagpur and Betul in Madhya Pradesh getting treated in Amravati,” she said.
According to Thakur, political parties and businessmen protested the total lockdown. “But we had to take the decision and we succeeded in breaking the chain,” she said, pointing out that during the lockdown only essential services were operating. “Everything was shut except for pharmacy shops and vegetable supplies,” she said, adding that some industries in the MIDC were allowed to run.
As the situation gradually turned normal, shops were allowed to remain open till 5 pm, and other measures were also taken, like carrying out vaccination drives in markets and ensuring some 5,000 people were inoculated in the district per day, she said.
"The government is now working on the Amravati pattern," said Thakur, a Congress MLA from Teosa in Amravati.
The worst-affected areas were within the Amravati Municipal Corporation and Achalpur Municipal Council.
Spread over 12,235 sq km, the Amravati district, which is the headquarters of Amravati division, has a population of nearly 28 lakh.