Week-long curfew imposed in Dehradun, Rishikesh

Dehradun district administration on Sunday decided to clamp Covid curfew in Rishikesh, Dehradun, Chhavni Parishad Garhi Cantt and Clement Town municipal areas of Dehradun district from 7 pm April 26 to 5 am May 3, given the spike in Covid cases in the district for the last few days.

To ensure uninterrupted and sufficient supply of medical oxygen to all health facilities in the state, Uttarakhand government on Sunday designated a nodal officer Dr Ranjit Kumar Sinha for coordinating the transportation and movement of medical oxygen throughout the state. According to the order issued by the state government, Dr Sinha will be responsible for mapping, gap identification, deployment and ensuring unhindered movement of liquid medical oxygen tanks/oxygen carrying vehicles throughout the state.

The state government also ordered the transport depart

ment officials in the districts track and trace tankers which can be used for supplying medical oxygen to the health facilities.

Earlier in the day, chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat reviewed the COVID situation in the state, with senior officials. Rawat said currently the state has enough oxygen but it needs to be used judiciously. Informing about the developments in the meeting, Dr Pankaj Pandey, public relations officer state health department said seven new oxygen plants have been sanctioned in the state and eight are already active. He said efforts are being to further increase the production of medical oxygen in the state.

The state government also issued an order limiting the participation of people in social gatherings and weddings to not more than 50.

The state government also issued an order giving permission to state government teachers to take online classes from their residences and not schools given the spike in COVID cases.

The state government also issued an order to postpone the class 12 examinations which were scheduled to start on May 4. The new dates will be announced on June 1 after evaluating the COVID situation that time. Class 10 examinations which were scheduled to start on May 4 have been cancelled.

These developments follow a spike in COVID deaths and cases in the state in last one week or so.

On Sunday, the state reported the death of 44 COVID positive patients, taking the overall COVID case fatality in the state to 2146.