A night curfew has been imposed in four districts of Punjab from Saturday to deal with the recent increase in COVID-19 cases. Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan and Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta organized a meeting to review the current COVID-19 status with all the Deputy Commissioners, District Police Chiefs and Civil Surgeons through a videoconferencing.
Which are the four districts where night curfew is imposed?
- Jalandhar,
- SBS Nagar,
- Hoshiarpur, and
- Kapurthala.
What are the timings of the night curfew?
The night curfew will remain in the districts from 11.00 pm to morning 5:00 am.
The Punjab Chief Secretary said, “The second wave of coronavirus has begun and all DCs and police chiefs must ensure that big events that include marriages, religious ceremonies and social ceremonies are prohibited”.
Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said that the orders will be compiled from the very first day. This means it will come into effect from Saturday and shall remain as it is till further instructions are received.
Anybody who is exempted from adhering to the curfew time?
Yes, there will be an exemption for medical workers or workers working in factories that run in 24-hour shifts and also in cases of medical emergencies. These orders will also not apply to people who are returning after traveling in buses, trains or flights.
To effectively manage 2nd wave of #COVID19 & to break the chain of transmission, a high level meeting was chaired by @CsPunjab, wherein the DCs, Police Chiefs and key officers of other stakeholder departments like health and medical education were present.https://t.co/TPAdZkRq9b
— Government of Punjab (@PunjabGovtIndia) March 6, 2021
In a tweet, the Chief Secretary has requested people to get themselves vaccinated and continue following the COVID-19 protection norms.
Reviewed Covid containment measures with all DCs, SSPs, CPs, Civil surgeons along with @DGPPunjabPolice, PS Health, PS Med Ed. & Secy School Ed. today. Cases are rising- urge all eligible to get vaccinated and all to continue to follow covid appropriate behavior. @PunjabGovtIndia
— CS Punjab (@CsPunjab) March 6, 2021
The Punjab government did authorize the Deputy Commissioners to impose night time curfews at the hotspots if need be last month. Punjab has been observing an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases for about four weeks now.
The current scenario so far in Jalandhar
Jalandhar has recorded following number of cases up till now:
- 242 cases on Thursday,
- 134 cases on Friday, and
- 154 cases on Saturday,
This has forced the district authorities to take strict decisions. Jalandhar is at the second position in the case of COVID-19 cases after Ludhiana. It has reported 22,410 COVID-19 cases so far. As per the Medical Bulletin, Jalandhar has a total of 926 active cases so far.
Other than Jhalander, cases ranging from 156, 85 and 135 have been registered respectively in SBS Nagar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur on Saturday.
Punjab reported 1,179 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking the infection to 187,348 cases. Twelve more deaths took the fatalities to 5,910. Out of the five states that the centre has asked to investigate their growing COVID-19 cases, Punjab is one them. A strict monitoring policy, control and RT-PCR testing are called for. The remaining four states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
