Christian charities in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state have been forced to abandon their food distribution among the poor after the state tightened up social distancing norms to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The state government imposed a curfew in capital Bhopal on April 6, stopping all social workers, including church groups, from distributing free food to the poor and daily wage workers.

Thousands of daily wage earners, street dwellers and migrants lost their income to buy food after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown until April 15, shutting down all public activities and transport.

Christian charities helped Bhopal’s poor with food. “But now we are forced to stay at our homes as we cannot go out to distribute the food,” said Sister Lizy Thomas. The curfew came after a sudden spike in positive cases in Bhopal, where at least 12 people tested positive for Covid-19 on April 7, taking the city’s count to 74, the state’s chief medical officer Sudhir Dehariya told media.