India’s Madhya Pradesh state has extended its strict lockdown until May 15 to combat the spread of coronavirus infections, the state’s Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Thursday.
The "janta curfew," or people's curfew, means no weddings or mass gatherings will be allowed during the month of May, Chouhan said.
Local district authorities will be charged with enforcing it and crisis management groups should include citizen volunteers, ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials and opposition representatives, he added.
The chief minister said more than 500 hospitals are now treating Covid-19 patients in the state.
Any efforts to charge patients more than is required for medical care will be punished, he warned, saying “we have started investigations.”
Madhya Pradesh began administering its first Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday after Chouhan said Friday it would be unable to administer shots at the start of a national rollout on May 1 because it couldn’t get the vaccines by that date.
On April 19, the Indian government announced everyone over the age of 18 will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine from May 1.
Madhya Pradesh was one of the first major states run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP to acknowledge its incapacity to start the nationwide program on time.