Punjab government extends night curfew to all cities

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 15

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Friday that he was extending night curfew to all cities in the state---a development that comes as the state’s coronavirus count is just a 1,000 infections short of 30,000.

Night curfew hours will now be from 9 pm to 5 am. Only industries will be exempted, the chief minister said.   

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said a nodal officer would be appointed in each city for contact tracing to help health teams.

The state government also imposed weekend “stay-at-home” orders in Ludhiana, Patiala and Jalandhar---the three cities that continue to record an alarming number of infections---for the next 15 days.

Punjab’s coronavirus cases as well as deaths have gone up substantially this month---the state has recorded almost 13,000 new cases in just a fortnight since the end of July. The state’s death count has risen alarmingly as well, almost doubling from 386 at the end of July to stand now at 731.  The state has been reporting over 1,000 cases almost every day since August 6.

The Punjab Government expects COVID-19 cases in the state to peak in September.

Major decisions

--- Night curfew hours to extend from 9 pm to 5 am in all cities

--- Weekend “stay-at-home” orders in Patiala, Ludhiana and Jalandhar  

--- Marriage palaces, restaurant, offices where more than 10 people gather must appoint one Covid Monitor for compliance of COVID protocols, i.e. masks, sanitisation, social distancing. Violators to be penalised

--- People with high social contact will be tested in the coming week. Those in health, police and other government departments will be on frontline duty