District Magistrate of Patna, Sri Kumar Ravi has announced orders for a week-long complete lockdown in the capital city of Bihar. This lockdown will come into action on July 10 and will be carried out till July 16. The decision was made after Patna on Wednesday recorded an enormous spike of 234 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

Patna has a total of 1351 confirmed cases of the disease, as of July 8. While 641 patients have healed, 12 have perished to the infection to date. As of now 698 active cases in Patna.

The order was published by the Bihar government's Health Department in exercise of the powers granted under section 2, 3, and 4 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1987. "And whereas, there is an alarming surge in Covid-19 positive cases in district of Patna in the last three weeks wherein positivity rate has also been considerably high," the order said.

Furthermore it adds offices of the Government of India, its autonomous/subordinate offices and public corporation shall remain closed with the exception of defence, central armed police forces, treasury, public utilities (petrol, CNG, LPG, PNG), disaster management, power generation and transmission units, post offices, national informatics centre, and quick warning agencies.

Offices of the state/union territory governments, their autonomous bodies, corporations, etc shall remain closed according to the order with the anomaly of police, home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management elections, prisons, district administration and treasury along with electricity, water, sanitation, and municipal bodies.

In addition to these , all hospitals and related medical establishments, as well as their manufacturing and distribution units (both public and private) will remaininue to remain open.

Patna, Purnea and Kaimur District Administration has imposed a seven-day lockdown from tomorrow to 16th of this month. Nawada and Buxar district have also announced to impose lockdown between 10 and 12th of July.

Under this lockdown, Government offices and Public Corporations shall remain closed. All private and commercial establishments will also remain closed. However, ration shops, dairy, vegetables and meat shops will remain open between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. All places of worship and religious gathering will also be closed. The concerned authorities have been instructed to encourage home delivery to minimize the movement of individuals outside their homes.

The commercial and private establishments will be closed, relief has been provided for ration shops, dairy and milk booths, grocery shops, banks, insurance offices, print/electronic media, telecommunications, petrol pumps, power generation units, capital, and debt market services, cold storage and warehouse services, private security services, industrial establishments, and hospitality services along with the delivery of goods via e-commerce.

According to the Bihar government's Health Department, the state recognized 749 new Covid-19 cases on July 8. Patna is responsible for 234 of these cases. The state's record of confirmed cases of the disease now stands at 13,274. While 9338 patients have recouped, over 104 have perished to the infection to date.