Coronavirus Update- 75 Districts In India To Go Under Lock-down

Following a high level meeting on Sunday, officials have decided to put 75 districts from where individuals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus under a state of near-complete lock-down.

"Following detailed discussions, the State Governments were advised to issue appropriate orders to allow only essential services to operate in the 75 districts which have reported confirmed cases or casualties relating to COVID 19," an official press release by the Government said.

The decision was taken at a meeting on Sunday morning with the Chief Secretaries of all the States and the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

The lock-down will include all urban parts of Maharashtra, reported The Free Press Journal's P. Chunchuwar. Article 144 will be imposed and the lock-down will go into effect from midnight.

The only exceptions will be emergency services and shops selling commodities such as shops selling grocery, vegetables, milk, medicines etc, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said. Medicines-- Uddhav Thackeray

Major metro cities such as Kolkata have also been put under a state of lock-down.

CNN News18 journalist Payal Mehta took to Twitter to list down the cities and districts involved.

Kerala: Pathanamthitta, Kasargod, Ernakulam, Malappuram, Kannur, Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram

Uttar Pradesh: Ghaziabad, Moradabad, Noida, Varanasi, Lucknow, Rampur

Maharashtra: Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Yavatmal, Kalyan, Navi Mumbai, Ahmednagar, Panvel, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri,

Karnataka: Bengaluru, Kalaburagi, Kodagu, Chikkaballapur, Mysore

Bihar: Munger, Patna

Chhattisgarh: Raipur

Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal, Jabalpur

West Bengal: Kolkata

Gujarat: Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Baroda, Gandhinagar

Odisha: Khorda, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Angul, Ghanjam

Further details awaited.