COVID-19: THIS state extends night curfew in 4 cities for 15 days - Check details here

The Gujarat government on Friday extended night curfew in four cities of the state for two more weeks. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani issued an order in this regard. The Gujarat CM further urged people to be patient and cooperate with the authorities for a few more days. Vijay Rupani said that COVID cases have come down because night curfew was imposed in Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot in November 2020.

"The night curfew after 10 pm will continue for 15 more days in all four cities. There will be no relaxation for now, as there is a drastic decrease in new cases (because of curfew). People need to have patience and cooperate with the authorities," he told the media in Jamnagar.

A decision about lifting the curfew will be taken at an appropriate juncture, he said.

The night curfew in four major cities of Gujarat was imposed after a sudden spike in COVID cases after Diwali. Earlier, people were prohibited from leaving their homes from 9 pm-6 am every day in these cities. However, the timing was of late revised to 10 pm till 6 am.

Presently, there are 4,73,832 people under quarantine in Gujarat, including 111 in different government facilities.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 vaccination drive in Gujarat will start for healthcare workers from 161 centres when the nationwide inoculation campaign kicks off on January 16, said Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday. 

The Gujarat Health Department has identified 4.31 lakh healthcare workers for inoculation in the first phase. Following this, 6.93 lakh front-line workers such as police personnel, 1.05 crore citizens above the age of 50 and 2.75 lakh people under 50 will be vaccinated.