Amidst the frightening rise in Corona cases across the state, the Chhattisgarh government has decided to extend the 10 days of complete lockdown imposed in capital Raipur on April 9 for 7 more days. The city will remain locked till 26 April now, district collector S Bharathi Dasan declared today.

The Chhattisgarh government opted to extend the total lockdown in Raipur when the graph of corona positive cases continued to go up unabated even 7 days after the first lockdown. Now It appears that the dreadful escalation of the second wave of COVID-19 has already assumed the uncontainable proportion with 1 lakh 24,303 cases in the state.

The total lockdown was enforced in the capital city from 6 p.m. on Friday 9 April and was to end on the 19th of April. However, it has been decided to further the curbs till April 26 due to no visible improvement in the Covid-19 pandemic. Raipur emerged as the first state capital in the country to have been forced to opt for such a long lockdown. All other services barring medicines, petrol pump, and other very essential amenities, shall remain closed during the lockdown. The entire district has been declared as a Containment Zone.

Vegetable vendors have been allowed to sell veggies door to door, but grocers continue to remain in the blocked category. PDS shops will be opened with strict corona protocol, Dasan stated. Corona patients above 55 years of age will not be allowed for home isolation. Instead, people of this age group will be taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The decision was necessitated following an explosionlike situation prevalent in Raipur and the panicked administration appeared huddled in anxiety the state’s total caseload peaked to touch 1 lakh 24,000. Government and private hospitals have been grappling with the shortage of, ICUs, beds, Oxygen cylinders, and drugs such as Remedisivir. Several Covid-19 positive patients have been placed under an ending and long waiting queue to get themselves hospitalised.

Panicked friends, relatives have been posting SoS messages on social media platforms asking for help getting either a hospital bed, an ICU, Oxygen, or medicines. The situation turned so horrific that the state government rushed to appoint a top IAS officer just to ensure smooth supply and delivery of oxygen to every one dire need.