Gujarat: Night curfew in 20 cities from today
Amid the sharp rise in coronavirus positive cases, the Gujarat government on Tuesday announced a curfew from 8 pm to 6 am in 20 cities, which will come into force from Wednesday, till April 30. Earlier in the day, the Gujarat High Court had suggested that a curfew or lockdown could be imposed for three to four days to break the infection chain.
The curfew was already in force in four cities
Earlier, the curfew was in force from 9 pm to 6 am in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot. The government has also banned political or social gatherings till April 30 and reduced the number of guests for a marriage ceremony. The decision to impose the night curfew was taken in the meeting of a core group for coronavirus headed by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
Government acted on the High Court's suggestions
"The High Court has given us some suggestions and we have decided on it. Earlier we had imposed a curfew in four big cities of the state. Now we have decided to implement a night curfew in 20 cities of the state," Rupani said.
Centre will send a team of medical experts
Rupani said the Centre will send a team of medical experts to Gujarat which will help the state government to devise a strategy to check the rise in the cases. The cities where the curfew is being imposed are Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Gandhinagar, Anand, Nadiad, Mehsana, Morbi, Dahod, Patan, Godhra, Bhuj, Gandhidham, Bharuch, Surendranagar, and Amreli.
100 people allowed at weddings, 50 in other gatherings
The state government has reduced the number of people who can attend a marriage ceremony to 100 from 200. Besides, no political or social gathering will be allowed till April 30. In any other type of gathering, only 50 persons will be allowed.
Seventy percent oxygen to be reserved for medical use
The state government has also decided to ramp up the number of RT-PCR tests. 70 percent of oxygen produced by manufacturers will now be kept reserved for medical use instead of the previous ceiling of 60 percent. Besides, the number of beds in hospitals are being increased, assuring that there was no shortage of beds in the state for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Rs. 2.66 crore collected in fines in four days
The Gujarat police collected fines worth Rs. 2.66 crore in four days from 26,761 people failing to wear masks and those spitting in public places amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said on Wednesday. The fines were collected between April 2 and April 5, the official said, adding that a penalty of Rs. 1,000 has been imposed on violators of the mask rule.
Vehicles seized, several arrested for COVID-19 norm violations
As many as 1,300 FIRs under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code were also registered against people who failed to adhere to the directives issued by the administration to curb the viral spread. At least 2,410 persons were also arrested for flouting COVID-19 related rules and guidelines. In addition to this, 2,373 vehicles were seized for curfew violations in four major cities.
Gujarat has reported over 324K COVID-19 cases till date
The state police, on an average, fined around 6,600 people every day from April 2 to April 5 for COVID-19-related violations in Gujarat. Gujarat reported 3,280 fresh coronavirus positive cases in the last 24 hours, the highest rise in a day, taking the tally of infections to 3,24,878 while 17 deaths pushed the toll to 4,598, according to the state health department.
