‘Have to shut everything till May 15’

Bhopal, May 06: The Madhya Pradesh government has declared a complete lockdown in the state till May 15 to bring under control the coronavirus surge that has overwhelmed health infrastructures across the country. Announcing the shutdown, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the state can’t remain open with an 18 per cent case positivity rate.
“To break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus in the state, we have to completely shut everything till May 15 — strict ‘Janata Curfew’,” he was quoted by news agency ANI as saying. “We can’t shut things for too long, but with more than 18% positivity, we can’t remain open,” he added. On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh reported 12,319 coronavirus cases and 71 fatalities in 24 hours. The state’s total tally of infections is 6,24,985, whereas fatalities stand at 6,074. A total of 9,643 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the count of recoveries to 5,29,667, according to official data. The number of active cases in the state stands at a whopping 89,244.