The Telangana cabinet on Tuesday decided to impose a state-wide lockdown from May 12 (Wednesday) for 10 days to contain the spread of Covid-19.
There would be relaxation for all the activities from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily, said a brief statement from the Chief Minister’s Office.
The decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan, his official residence.
The announcement was made within minutes after the cabinet meeting began at 2 p.m. as the Telangana High Court was to hear the matter.
The high court had voiced its unhappiness over the lack of effective measures to check Covid spread. During the hearing earlier in the day, it had pulled up authorities for failing to strictly enforce night curfew.
The court had asked the government if it would wait till Ramzan to be over before announcing new measures to control the Covid situation.
The state government, which imposed night curfew, had so far ruled out imposing partial or total lockdown, saying the measure would be of not much help in containing the surge. It had also claimed that the situation in the state is totally under control and in fact, a downward trend started in new Covid cases.
Last week, the Chief Minister had stated such a move would bring life to a standstill and would lead to the total collapse of the economy.
However, with the pressure mounting on the government from various quarters, the government finally decided to impose the lockdown.
A detailed Government Order on lockdown with guidelines is likely to be issued later in the day.
