Coronavirus | Punjab extends night curfew hours in nine districts

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday announced a two-hour extension in night curfew in the State’s nine districts worst affected by COVID-19. He warned of more tough measures and restrictions over the next few days.

Night curfew will now be in place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., instead of 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Mohali, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Ropar. All these districts have been reporting over 100 cases every day.

The announcement comes after Punjab’s daily cases shot up to 2,039, with 35 deaths, on March 17.

Addressing a press conference to mark the completion of four years of his government, Capt. Singh said the COVID-19 situation in the State was critical and he would act tough.

Several stringent measures, including restrictions on gatherings, will be announced after discussions with the State government’s expert team over the next couple of days, he said. Whether these would also include restrictions on political gatherings was something that will be decided as per the medical expert team’s advice, he added.

“I won’t be easy on people. People may not like it, but it’s my duty,” Capt. Singh said, adding that he hoped the daily case load would not cross 3,000, as projected by experts.

‘Situation serious’

With 283 patients in high-dependency units (on oxygen) and another 27 on ventilators, the situation was serious, said Capt. Singh, urging people to get themselves tested even if they felt slightly unwell.

While the government was taking all possible measures to check the spread of the virus, the Chief Minister hoped the Centre would accept his suggestion (submitted at the Prime Minister’s meeting on March 17) on opening up vaccination to younger people in the worst-hit areas and also to all those in public-facing roles.

To a question on the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister’s statement seeking curbs on people from Punjab for pilgrimage and religious purposes, Capt. Singh said he was not in favour of restricting religious movement.

He added the COVID problem needed to be controlled, and an appropriate decision would be taken when he received a formal letter from the Chief Minister of the neighbouring State on the issue.