Weeklong lockdown in Haryana from today

CHANDIGARH: Amid a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases, the Haryana government on Sunday clamped a week-long lockdown across the state beginning May 3.

“From May 3, there will be a seven-day long lockdown in the entire state,” Haryana’s home and health minister Anil Vij said in a tweet.

Later, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar told mediapersons in Sirsa that the government has decided to impose lockdown from May 3 to May 9 to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Haryana on Sunday recorded its biggest single-day jump with 145 deaths taking the toll to 4,486 while 13,322 fresh infections pushed the infection count to 5,14,888.

Earlier, a weekend curfew was enforced in nine districts -Gurugram, Faridabad, Panchkula, Sonepat, Rohtak, Karnal, Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad -from 10 pm on Friday till 5 am on Monday.

During the lockdown period, the government has urged the residents to stay indoors, officials said. However, several categories which were granted exemption earlier too during weekend restrictions in nine districts, including people who are tasked with law and order, emergencies and municipal service duties and government machinery tasked with COVID-19 related duties, continue to get exemptions during the lockdown.

To curb the virus spread, the state government had recently put several other restrictions in place including imposition of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CRPC and daily night curfew.

Khattar held meetings with the district administration officials in Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Sonepat and Bhiwani. The chief minister appealed to all to refrain from creating an atmosphere of fear and urged them to instead play a positive role in this fight against the pandemic.

Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in a statement, said the government should use the lockdown period to improve the condition of medical infrastructure, which he alleged has completely collapsed “as the government has failed to provide beds, oxygen and medicines to Covid patients”.