Maharashtra state to see curfew and lockdown

The Indian state of Maharashtra will see tighter restrictions from today following a sharp spike in COVID-19 infections.

A night time curfew will be enforced and the state will be under a full lockdown on weekends.

India saw its highest day of infections since mid-September on Sunday, with 93,249 new cases.

More than half of those were in Maharashtra, which has India's largest city Mumbai as its capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked a specialist team to visit the state and investigate why there has been such a severe spike there.

Some 165,000 people have died of COVID-19 in India, and there have been 12.5 million confirmed infections.

This is Maharashtra's second full lockdown and government officials had been warning the move was imminent for some time.

Pune city, which is about 160km east of Mumbai, had already imposed a curfew and closed religious places, hotels, bars, shopping malls and cinemas for a week.

[Source: BBC]