A night curfew was imposed in Punjab’s 4 districts from Saturday to tackle a recent surge in coronavirus cases. The orders came after Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan and Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta held a meeting to review the coronavirus situation with all DCs, district police chiefs, and civil surgeons through a video conferencing. The districts where the night curfew has been imposed are Jalandhar, SBS Nagar, Hoshiarpur, and Kapurthala.
The night curfew will remain in place within the districts from 11 pm to 5 am.
Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori had earlier within the day mentioned the order will be effective from Saturday until further directions.
However, there will be relaxation for workers or staff working in factories which run on 24-hour shifts and also in cases of a medical emergency.
These orders won’t be applicable to individuals returning after traveling in buses, trains, or flights.
The chief secretary in a tweet has urged individuals to get themselves vaccinated and to continue to follow the COVID-appropriate behavior.
Last month, the Punjab government had authorized deputy commissioners (DCs) to impose the night curfew in coronavirus hotspots if wanted.
Punjab has been witnessing a surge within the number of COVID-19 cases for nearly 4 weeks.
Jalandhar reported 242 cases on Thursday, 134 cases on Friday, and 154 on Saturday, promoting the district authorities to take this decision.
Jalandhar is on the second spot in terms of coronavirus cases after Ludhiana. It has so far reported 22,410 COVID-19 cases.
There are a total of 926 active cases in Jalandhar as of now, according to a medical bulletin.
SBS Nagar, Kapurthala, and Hoshiarpur on Saturday reported 156, 85, and 137 cases, respectively.
Punjab on Saturday reported 1,179 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 187,348 cases. Twelve more deaths took the fatality count to 5,910.
Punjab is among the 5 states that have been asked by the Centre to refocus on strict surveillance, containment, and RT-PCR testing to check the growing number of cases. The other 4 states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.
Earlier, health officials had ascribed the upswing within the number of cases to non-adherence of COVID-19 security guidelines like wearing masks and maintaining social distancing by individuals.
Earlier, the state government had lifted the night curfew from January 1 because of a decline in coronavirus cases.
