Punjab Govt imposes night curfew in Ludhiana, Patiala & Jalandhar to counter COVID-19

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has decided to impose night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am in the worst affected cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Patiala from Saturday in the wake COVID-19 spread.

"Concerned over the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the State, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am in the worst affected cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Patiala from Saturday, while directing all big cities/towns to prepare an integrated management plan for treatment of the disease at both Government and private facilities," said the state government in a press release on Friday.

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The Chief Minister recently also announced stricter COVID-19 enforcement protocols and a week-long trial of the enforcement measures of the mandatory mask-wearing rule by making offenders restrain at the same spot for an hour with a mask on.

This comes as Punjab reported a record single-day spike of 1,063 cases took its tally to 21,930 on Friday, with 23 more fatalities pushing the death toll due to the disease to 539 in the state. So far 14,040 people have been cured of the infection in the state.

The State had recently been in the news over the hooch liquor tragedy killing over 100 people in three districts. Captain Amarinder Singh announced that the compensation amount has been increased to Rs 5 lakh from 2 lakh. He also announced a government job for kin of deceased according to the eligibility. The number of people arrested by Punjab Police has gone up to 54 till date including five kingpins of the illicit liquor mafia that spanned several districts of the state -- 37 in Tarn Taran, nine in Amritsar Rural and eight in Batala.

A manhunt as been launched for Ludhiana-based paint business owner Rajesh Joshi and eight others, who had initially allegedly supplied the three drums of spurious liquor which caused the deaths. Punjab Police has launched a departmental inquiry against two deputy superintendents of police and four station house officers have been suspended for negligence.

(With inputs from agencies, Photo credit: PTI)

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