Gujarat relaxes lockdown; buses, government offices to resume operation from Monday
State transport and city buses would be allowed to operate across Gujarat and government offices will function at full capacity from Monday.
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Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Saturday night announced further relaxations on lockdown restrictions starting next Monday, following the Central government's latest guidelines.
State transport and city buses would be allowed to operate across Gujarat and government offices will function at full capacity from Monday.
Curfew will be in force between 9pm and 5am instead of 7pm and 7am earlier, chief minister Vijay Rupani said in a video message.
"Instead of lockdown, the word `unlock' is being used, as we are going in the direction of unlocking everything. In the last 10 days we already offered massive relaxations in most of the areas except parts of Ahmedabad and Surat," he said.
"In this new unlocking effort, we have to continue to work with coronavirus without any economic blockade so that no work is hampered," Rupani said.
"We are removing the odd-even rule for shops, as now markets will be allowed to open with the only condition that everybody wears face masks and maintains social distancing," he said.
"State transport and city bus services will be allowed across the state without regional limitation," he said, adding that an ST bus cannot carry more than 60% of it's capacity, while a city bus will have to limit passenger capacity to 50%.
"We had earlier allowed one person on a two-wheeler. We now allow two persons in case they happen to be family members, with mandatory masks. Small four-wheeler will continue to have (maximum of) two passengers along with driver, while three passengers will be allowed along with driver in larger four-wheelers (like SUVs)," he said.
Hotels, restaurants, religious places and shopping malls will operate as per Centre's guidelines to be announced by June 8, he said.
"But no shops other than those dealing in essential services and commodities will be allowed in containment zones. The health department will finalise a new list of containment zones by tomorrow. The implementation of "Unlock-1" will begin from Monday," he said.
Also read: TamilNadu government has allowed public transport services to resume partially
The death toll due to coronavirus in Gujarat crossed the 1,000-mark and rose to 1,007 with 27 new fatalities on Saturday.
The number of coronavirus cases in the state rose to 16,356 with 412 new patients being reported during the day, the state health department said.
621 patients recovered in the state on Saturday, taking the total number of discharged COVID-19 patients to 9,230.
The state has achieved a recovery rate of 56.4%, which is higher than the national average of 47.4%, the department added.
Two weeks ago, the recovery rate of coronavirus patients in Gujarat was 39.2 %, it said.
Ahmedabad district reported 284 new coronavirus cases and 24 deaths on Saturday.
Gandhinagar, Mehsana and Banaskantha districts reported one death each.
The number of coronavirus cases in Vadodara crossed the 1,000 -mark on Saturday after 28 new patients were found, and the tally has thus reached 1,009.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Surat rose to 1,565 with 55 new cases.
As many as 18 districts reported fresh coronavirus cases.
2,43,845 people have been quarantined in Gujarat, and 8,144 of them have been lodged in various quarantine facilities.
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