Night curfew relaxed in 36 cities of Gujarat; day time COVID curbs to continue

AHMEDABAD: Considering a significant drop in the new coronavirus cases in Gujarat, the state government on Wednesday decided to relax the night curfew timings by an hour in 36 cities, while the day time restrictions will remain in place.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani made the announcement regarding the revised curfew timings after a cabinet meeting in Gandhinagar.

From Friday, the night restrictions on people's movement will be effective from 9 pm to 6 am in 36 cities, the chief minister said.

Currently, the night curfew is being enforced from 8 pm to 6 am.

"Coronavirus cases are decreasing in Gujarat. From nearly 14,600 new cases, the highest daily peak registered on April 30, about 3,200 cases are currently emerging every day. Hence, we have decided to relax the night curfew. The curfew will now be from 9 pm to 6 am," Rupani said.

A notification in this regard will be issued on Thursday, he said.

The night curfew is currently in place in 36 cities, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot.

The chief minister also said there will not be any change in the day time restrictions currently in place in these cities.

He also said the state government is alert about the possibility of a third wave of COVID-19 and a detailed action plan to deal with it will be announced soon.

On Tuesday, Gujarat reported 3,255 new COVID-19 cases and 44 casualties that raised the tally to 7,94,912 and toll to 9,665, an official from the state health department said.

At 9,676, the day's count of recoveries was nearly three times more than the new cases, taking the total number of patients who have recovered so far to 7,22,741, the official said.

With this, the state's recovery rate stands at 90.92 per cent, he said.

With 512 new infections, Ahmedabad reported the highest number new cases in the state, followed by Vadodara with 462 cases, Surat with 423, Rajkot with 213, Junagadh with 202 and Jamnagar 103 cases, the data released by the health department stated.

In case of fatalities, Ahmedabad topped with eight deaths, followed by Surat with seven, Rajkot with five, Vadodara with four and Jamnagar three, it said.

The state is now left with 62,506 active cases, of which 603 patients are on ventilators, it was stated.

Meanwhile, as many as 2,28,810 people were administered COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday.

The figure included 1,28,283 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44, with the government targeting to vaccinate eight lakh people in the category in a week, it said.

A total of 9,10,871 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 have been vaccinated so far, it said.

With this, 1,58,30,183 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Gujarat so far, which includes 39,65,429 people who have received the second dose of the vaccine.

Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 7,94,912, new cases 3,255, death toll 9,665, discharged 7,22,741, active cases 62,506, people tested so far - figures not released.