Punjab: Ludhiana and Patiala impose night curfew as COVID-19 cases surge
While night curfew is back in six districts of Punjab -- Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala, Ludhiana and Patiala -- many other districts are also reviewing the situation depending upon the number of cases being reported on a daily basis.
FollowTaking into view the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, night curfew has been clamped in Patiala and Ludhiana districts. The curfew will be effective from the night of March 12 from 11 pm to 5 am, read the orders issued by the district magistrates.
While night curfew is back in six districts of Punjab -- Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala, Ludhiana and Patiala -- many other districts are also reviewing the situation depending upon the number of cases being reported on a daily basis.
However, the police and army personnel on duty, government officials/employees, essential services/medical emergency workers, and any other emergency related to the safety of the public/property, would be exempted from the purview of these orders.
The entire Doaba belt, comprising Jalandhar, Kapurthala, SBS Nagar and Hoshiarpur districts, is already under night curfew.
Patiala has witnessed 5% increase in the Covid cases this month. Deputy commissioner Kumar Amit said there are 791 active cases in the district. This figure is four times higher than the last month, he added. On Thursday, the district recorded 110 positive cases.
With 1,309 fresh coronavirus cases in Punjab, the infection tally rose to 1,93,345 on Thursday, while 18 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 5,996 in the state, according to a medical bulletin. The number of active cases also increased from 9,402 on Wednesday to 10,069 on Thursday.
A total of 2,73,400 samples have been taken for testing so far and of them, 2,49,733 tested negative while reports of 113 samples were awaited.
