Punjab: Restaurants, cinemas, gyms to open at 50% capacity
With Punjab’s Covid-19 positivity rate dropping to 2%, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday announced easing of lockdown restrictions and allowed restaurants and other eating joints as well as cinemas and gyms to open at 50% capacity from Wednesday.
The chief minister also announced an increase in the cap on gatherings, including weddings and cremations, to 50 people. Under the new guidelines, which will remain in effect till June 25 — when they will be reviewed — daily night curfew will be in place from 8pm to 5am and weekend curfew from 8pm on Saturday to 5am on Monday across the state. Earlier, the night curfew was from 7pm to 6am.
However, all essential activities, including those covered under the existing exemptions, will remain unaffected by curfew restrictions, stated an official release. The CM, while chairing a virtual Covid review meeting, gave the order for opening all restaurants (including in hotels), cafes, coffee shops, fast food outlets, dhabas, cinemas, gyms at maximum 50% of their seating capacity, subject to all their employees having received at least one dose of vaccination. AC buses can also ply with 50% occupancy.
However, bars, pubs and taverns will continue to remain closed. Similarly, all educational institutions will remain shut, the spokesperson said.
The district authorities have been asked to determine opening timings of non-essential shops, including on Sunday, on the basis of the local situation, while ensuring that crowding is avoided.
Chief secretary Vini Mahajan cited a University of Cambridge Judge Business School report of June 14, on Growth of Infection in Punjab, according to which new cases are on a downward trajectory across all districts. “Newly reported Covid-19 cases are likely to decline to about 210 per day by June 28,” she said. The projected number of deaths by June 28 stands at 21. The state had hit its second wave peak on May 8, with 9,100 cases, which had come down to a low of 629 on June 14.