A comprehensive lockdown will be enforced in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad from July 13-23, the Maharashtra government announced today as the cities reported a steady growth in the number of coronavirus cases.

Only milk shops, pharmacies, clinics and emergency services will be allowed during the shutdown period in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the government said, adding the decision was taken to break the chain of transmission.

Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai accounts for 58.2 per cent of the cases in the state. While Chennai has seen a dip in the number of cases, Madurai has seen a five-fold rise in COVID-19 cases in the last 16 days.

A lockdown will be imposed in Uttar Pradesh from 10 pm tonight to Monday morning because of the spiralling COVID-19 cases in the state. Only essential services will be allowed during the lockdown, the state government said. This is the first time the state government is going for a blanket lockdown since the centre started lifting the restrictions in May.

Eight states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana, account for around 90 per cent of the active COVID-19 cases in the country and 80 per cent of the active cases have been reported from 49 districts, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 was informed on Thursday.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has been home quarantined and his office has been sealed after some of his staff tested positive for coronavirus. His office has been sealed for five days for sanitisation after some staff tested positive.

This is the second time the office of the Karnataka Chief Minister has been shut. About a month ago, the building was closed for disinfection after a relative of a police constable posted there was infected by the virus.

The US – the worst-hit country – on Thursday posted 65,551 new coronavirus cases, a record for a 24-hour period, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 5.54 lakh people globally since it emerged in China late last year. Over 1.22 crore people have been infected with the highly contagious virus.

The centre has held back the release of complete industrial production data for the second straight month in May due to falling economic activity amid the pandemic and the lockdown necessitated by it.

China has warned its citizens living in Kazakhstan of a local “unknown pneumonia” which, it said, has a “much higher” fatality rate than the COVID-19 disease, prompting the Central Asian country to dismiss it as “fake news”, news agency PTI reported.