Maharashtra has been the worst-hit covid state in India. Amid rising cases of covid-19 cases in the state, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunde issued an order declaring six states (Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, and NCR region, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand) as places of "sensitive origin." All the train passengers travelling from these states to Maharashtra will require a negative RT-PCR test conducted within 48 hours to enter the state. The order was passed to control the influx of other mutants of coronavirus from other states to enter Maharashtra. The order read: "In order to curb the transmission of the covid-19 virus in the state and in order to stop the influx of other covid-19 virus variants into the state of Maharashtra from other locations, in the exercise of the powers conferred under section 2 of The Epidemics Disease Act, 1897 and the powers, conferred under The Disaster Management Act, 2005, the undersigned, in his capacity as Chairperson, State Executive Committee, hereby declares the following states as places of Sensitive Origin. (Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and NCR region, Uttarakhand)." "These places will be considered as places of "sensitive origin" from the date of this order till the time it is retracted or till covid-19 stays notified as a disaster," it added. The state government also released Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for passengers travelling to Maharashtra through railways