Ahmedabad shuts down for weekend

While the city will remain shut till Monday morning to check spread of Covid infection as cases continue to surge post-Diwali, Gujarat government has also imposed night curfew in Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot beginning tonight

The city is in the grip of another Covid-19 wave after social distancing rules went for a toss during the Diwali festivities. And we are now paying the price for our recklessness. Hours before a complete curfew came into force in Ahmedabad at 9 pm on Friday, shutting down the state’s financial capital for the weekend, Gujarat government swung into action and placed restrictions in other major cities of the state. It has imposed a night curfew in Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot from 9 pm to 6 am daily, beginning tonight.

Govt urges people to cooperate

As many as 1,420 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported in Gujarat in the last 24 hours (up from 1,381 on Thursday), taking the state's caseload to 1,94,402, the health department said on Friday evening. "As a precautionary measure, similar to Ahmedabad, Gujarat government has decided to impose night curfew in Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot from 9 pm on Saturday. The decision will be effective for every day till further announcement," said Nitin Patel, deputy chief minister of Gujarat, who also holds the health portfolio.

"Just like people cooperated with the government during the lockdown, unlocking phases, I request the public to cooperate with the government in this decision," added Patel. Earlier, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said his government is not mulling to impose a statewide lockdown.

'Night curfew after complete curfew'

Regarding steps taken to stem the spread of the infection in Ahmedabad, which recorded 327 new cases on Friday, up from 246 on Thursday, Additional Chief Secretary Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta said that night curfew will remain in force even after the end of the "complete curfew" until Covid-19 situation is brought under control. Meanwhile, people resorted to panic buying on Friday morning as they thronged the markets in Ahmedabad to stock up on essentials, defeating the very purpose of checking overcrowding in the city.

Availability of beds

A total of 483 normal or non-critical beds, and 154 ICU beds vacant at government hospitals in Ahmedabad as of November 20 evening. According to data, put up by the AMC on its Twitter handle on Friday, there were 405 AMC quota beds and 241 private quota beds available at Covid-designated hospitals in Ahmedabad city. As on Friday night, a total of 1,283 Covid-19 beds are available in Ahmedabad. Of these, 1,042 are public and 241 are private.

At the 1,200-bed hospital at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, 782 normal and 198 ICU beds were full, leaving 189 normal beds and 31 ICU beds still empty. Dy CM Nitin Patel said, "We asked the civil hospital to add 60 more normal beds and 60 more ICU beds."

Services exempted from curfew

During the curfew period, a total of 57 police inspectors, 215 PSIs, 7,000 police personnel, 2,635 home guards along with 11DCPs and 32 ACPs will work in two shifts, said Additional CP Sector 1, Rajendra Asari. According to Ahmedabad police notification, the following services have been exempted during the curfew hours:

» Services related to petroleum, CNG, PNG, electricity production, telecommunication etc.
» Police, home guard, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management, jails and essential services related to municipal corporations.
» All the essential medical services related to the public and private sector along with the home delivery of pharmaceuticals through e-commerce.
» Milk distribution
» Private security services
» Production of essential commodities like pharmaceuticals as well as those industries in which constant processing is needed have been exempted.
» Permission has to be sought for marriage as well as for last rites procession where permission for upto 20 persons can be given for last rites procession.
» For picking up and dropping the passengers at the airport and railway station, taxi and radio cab services have been exempted and the passengers can travel by showing their travelling tickets.
» ATM services.
» All types of transportation services.
» Students appearing for different entrance examinations in the coming days which includes exams like CA, SSC, NIC scientist B, CGL tier 3 and CSIR NET Exam
» Pharmaceutical and chemical industries exempted. Earlier, Gujarat government had put on hold its decision to reopen schools and colleges in the state from November 23.