Night curfew in Chandigarh from Thursday amid COVID surge, shops to shut by 5 pm - Check details

To contain coronavirus spread, the Chandigarh administration on Wednesday announced the extension of curfew period by three hours. The decision was taken by Chandigarh Administrator VP Singh Badnore during a COVID review meeting with officials.

The night curfew will start from 6 pm till 5 am and the fresh curbs will come into force from Thursday till further orders, said an official statement. Presently, the curfew timings are from 9 pm till 5 am.

All shops, malls, multiplexes, etc, will close by 5 pm with home delivery allowed up to 9 pm. All non-essential activities will be banned during the night curfew.

The Union Territory administration also directed all educational institutions, schools, colleges, coaching institutions, libraries, etc. To remain closed till May 15.

PGI hospital Director Jagat Ram informed the meeting that their ICU beds are full.

He said they have 297 Covid cases in the Nehru Extension Block, out of which 87 belong to Chandigarh, 95 to Punjab, 44 to Haryana, 30 to Himachal Pradesh, 14 to Uttar Pradesh, five to New Delhi, three to Bihar and 19 from other states.

The Director said they have adequate oxygen supply with them and that the Centre has promised to provide 150 oxygen concentrators to the PGI.

He said they have tested 5,394 samples, out of which 1,380 were found positive. The positivity rate was 25.5 percent.

Chandigarh currently has 5,980 active cases, while its nearby cities Panchkula and Mohali have 2,667 and 8,235 active cases, respectively.

Chandigarh had on Tuesday reported a record 837 fresh infections, taking the coronavirus tally to 40,350.