With Punjab’s COVID-19 Test Positivity Rate sliding to 0.4%, Chief Minister Captain (Retd.) Amarinder Singh on Friday ordered the lifting of weekend and night curfew from July 12.
The Chief Minister said gatherings of 100 persons indoors and 200 outdoors would be allowed.
He hoped better sense would prevail among political parties and leaders brazenly violating COVID-19 curbs by holding massive protests. The Chief Minister asked the Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta to issue challans to such violators.
Capt. Amarinder said bars, cinema halls, restaurants, spas, swimming pools, gyms, malls, sports complexes, museums and zoos can open, but all staff members and visitors must have taken at least one dose of the vaccine.
Though schools would continue to remain closed, the Deputy Commissioner concerned would allow colleges, coaching centres and all other institutions of higher learning to open, subject to their submitting a certificate that all teaching and non-teaching staff and students have been given at least one dose of the vaccine at least 2 weeks ago.
The Chief Minister, while reviewing the COVID-19 situation virtually, said the situation would be reviewed again on July 20. Use of masks must be ensured at all times, the Chief Minister said.
Heath Secretary Hussan Lal said four districts had shown positivity of 1% or less, but the districts that still needed vigilance were Ludhiana, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur and Roop Nagar.
With the State running out of Covishield and left with only one day’s stock of Covaxin, Capt. Amarinder again stressed the need for increased vaccine supplies from the Centre. This was critical given the gradual opening up of several sectors. He directed officials to continue to aggressively pursue enhancement of the State’s quota with the Centre.
Pointing out that Punjab had already vaccinated nearly 83 lakh eligible persons (approximately 27% of the population), the Chief Minister said the State was ensuring there was no wastage of the stock. Punjab was able to utilise more than 6 lakh doses in a single day when adequate supply was received, he noted at the review meeting. While the first dose had been administered to 70 lakh people, 13 lakh people had received the second dose, he said.
