Night curfew in Punjab from today

Chandigarh: Calling for “warlike preparedness” to deal with the massive Covid spike in the state, Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh ordered a series of emergency measures, including daily night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am and extension of weekend lockdown in the state from Friday. ■

Chandigarh, Aug. 20: Amid rising coronavirus cases, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday ordered a series of emergency measures, including extension of weekend lockdown, with daily night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am in all 167 cities and towns in the state from August 21. Besides, the chief minister also ordered a total ban on all gatherings except weddings and funerals across the state till August 31.

Amarinder, making the announcement on Thursday evening, called for “war-like preparedness” to deal with the spike in coronavirus cases.

“Enough is enough. We need to be tough without affecting the state’s economy,” the Chief Minister said today, adding that each of the more than 900 Covid-linked deaths in the state “pains me”.

The government and private offices will work at 50 per cent capacity till the end of this month, as per the directives issued by the CM during a video conference meeting to review the COVID situation in the state.

Punjab has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases and death toll for the last several days. On Wednesday, the state had reported 36,083 coronavirus cases with 920 deaths so far.

The chief minister also directed the police to ensure the ban on political protests and gathering is followed, and asked his own party — the Congress — to self-enforce the ban strictly.

Punjab on Thursday saw its biggest single-day spike of 1,741 coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the Covid-19 tally to 37,824 in the state, according to a medical bulletin.

Thirty-seven more fatalities were also recorded in the state and the death toll now stands at 957, it said

The record jump in the caseload came on a day when the state government announced extension of night curfew by two hours in all cities from August 21.

On August 17, the state had reported a maximum daily increase of 1,704 cases. Of the fresh fatalities, 10 deaths were reported from Ludhiana, five each from Mohali, Patiala and Sangrur, three from Jalandhar, two each from SBS Nagar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur and one each from Gurdaspur, Kapurthala and Muktsar, as per the medical bulletin. One death case reported from Amritsar on Wednesday was deleted as it was counted twice, it said.