Struggling to contain the huge COVID-19 surge, Maharashtra has declared six states, including Delhi and the NCR region, as places of "sensitive origin" in a bid to stop the influx of other variants of coronavirus into the state. Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte in an order issued on Sunday declared Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as places of "sensitive origin".

As per the order, passengers travelling to Maharashtra from these places will need a negative RT-PCR report of test conducted within 48 hours of their train travel. The decision has been taken to curb the transmission of coronavirus in Maharashtra and to "stop the influx of other COVID-19 virus variants into the state from other locations," said the order.