COVID-19: Night curfew in 4 Guj cities to continue till Feb 15

It had later announced that the night curfewwould continue till January 31, but reduced the curfew timingby one hour to 10 pm and 6 am.Starting February, Gujarat will strictly follow tillFebruary 28 the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the UnionMinistry of Home Affairs on January27, Additional ChiefSecretary Home, Pankaj Kumar said.The night curfew would continue to be in force infour metros of the state - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot andSurat.

The Gujarat government on Saturday extended till February 15 the night curfew in four major cities of the state- Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot- to prevent the spread of coronavirus, a senior official said.

However, the duration of the night curfew has been curtailed by an hour, from 10 pm-6 am to 11 pm-6 am, he said.

The government had imposed the night curfew in these four cities following a spike in COVID-19 cases after Diwali in November. It had later announced that the night curfew would continue till January 31 but reduced the curfew timing by one hour to 10 pm and 6 am.

''Starting February, Gujarat will strictly follow till February 28 the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the union ministry of Home Affairs on January 27,'' Additional chief secretary (Home), Pankaj Kumar said.

''The night curfew would continue to be in force in four metros of the state - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Seurat. But it would now be between 11 pm to 6 am till February 15,'' he said.

Kumar said the state has succeeded in improving the corvid-19 recovery rate to 96.94 percent.

''But there is a need to remain cautious, vigilant, and adhere to the prescribed containment strategy to prevent and completely eradicate the COVID-19 transmission,'' he said.

According to him, all the activities outside of the containment zones will continue as per the SOPs issued by the various departments of the central and state governments.

Activities related to marriage functions, largegatherings, places of worship, malls, restaurants, hotels, cinema halls, swimming pools, gymnasiums, exhibition, passenger movement by train, air travel, metro train, schools, institutions of higher learning, yoga centers, gymnasiums, etc will have to be conducted in strict adherence to the SOPs, hesaid.

As per the release issued Friday evening, there are3,589 active cases in Gujarat, which has so far reported2,60,901 COVID-19 cases and 4,385 deaths.