CURFEW has been imposed in Amravati, Akola and Wardha districts of Vidarbha as part of measures to contain rising Covid-19 cases. “In Amravati and Akola districts, curfew started at 5 pm on Saturday and will continue till 7 am on Monday,” said Amravati Divisional Commissioner Piyush Singh. In Wardha, the 36-hour curfew began at 8 pm on Saturday, according to Superintendent of Police Prashant Holkar.

In Amravati Division, Amravati district recorded as many as 894 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, followed by Akola (277 cases), Buldana (215 cases), Yavatmal (145 cases) and Washim (93 cases). The numbers added up to 1,625 for the division. In Wardha district of Nagpur Division, the total number of positive cases fell from 108 on Friday to 58 on Saturday, with two deaths being reported on the day.

In Nagpur district, 725 new Covid-19 cases and six deaths were reported on Saturday.

Amravati Divisional Commissioner Piyush Singh said, “The rise should also be seen in the context of huge increase in testing. Till two days ago, the average daily number of tests was about 1,200. It has been scaled up to 3,000 since Friday in Amravati district.” In Nagpur Division, Gadchiroli (3 cas-es), Chandrapur (22), Gondia (6) a-nd Bhandara (20) districts continued to have low Covid numbers.

But the number of deaths across the region remained low with 24 succumbing to the disease in 11 districts Saturday. Amravati recorded seven and Nagpur six deaths. Four deaths were recorded in Akola, three in Buldana and two each in Wardha and Yavatmal.