The cyber wing of the police is keeping a watch to nab those spreading rumours that a coronavirus-induced lockdown has been imposed in Maharashtra again, state home minister Anil Deshmukh said on Monday.
"The @MahaCyber1 Branch is keeping a close eye on those who are spreading false rumours that lockdown has been reimposed in Maharashtra. Stringent action has been directed against the people concerned for attempting to disseminate false information without any official information," Deshmukh tweeted.
There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in some districts of the state recently and local-level action, like night curfew, has been initiated.
Maharashtra reported 5,210 fresh COVID-19 infections on Monday, after logging over 6,000 cases for three days in a row, even as the Mumbai region, which has seen a bulk of states fatalities, did not report even a single death during the day, the health department said.
The state -- which has witnessed an upsurge in COVID- 19 cases since February 10 -- reported 6,112 infections last Friday (February 19).
It reported 6,281 and 6,971 new cases on Saturday (Feb 20) and Sunday (Feb 21), respectively.
According to an official statement, with 5,210 fresh infections, Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally rose to 21,06,094.
Owing to the spike in COVID-19 cases in the state, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday informed that the coming eight days will decide whether there will be a lockdown in the state.
Meanwhile, a week-long complete lockdown has been announced in the Amaravati district in wake of the spike in cases.