In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases post-Diwali festivities in second wave in Gujarat, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has imposed weekend curfew from Friday 9 pm to Monday 6 am during which only milk and pharmacies will remain open in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.
Moreover, the civic body has also imposed indefinite night curfew from 9 pm to 6 am beginning from Friday.
“Corona situation was reviewed late night and it has been decided that “complete curfew”shall be imposed from tomorrow night 9:00 pm till Monday morning 6:00 am in city of Ahmedabad. During this period, only shops selling milk and medicines shall be permitted to remain open,” said Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta, additional chief secretary who has been tasked with COVID-19 management in the city.
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The Civic body has taken stringent steps of imposing weekend curfew and indefinite night curfew as the city has come under severe spike in cases that led to explosion in demand for hospital beds.
All commercial and business establishments except essential service providers will be shut from 9pm to 6AM in the city.
Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta, additional chief secretary and incharge of Covid-19 management in Ahmedabad, said that the civic administration and the state authorities have augmented beds in hospitals in order to deal with the situation.
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“As many as 900 new beds have been added in various government hospitals while 400 additional beds were added in private hospitals. As on Thursday, total 2237 beds in government hospitals and 400 in private designated hospitals are vacant and available in the city,” Dr Gupta said in a statement.
There are seven government hospitals and 76 private Covid-19 designated hospitals with over 8000 beds in Ahmedabad.
According to Dr Gupta, 20 additional ambulances have been added in the fleet to take the patients to hospitals while the state government has allocated 300 extra doctors and 300 medical students to help and assist the civic body in handling rising number of patients as the infection is surging with large number of cases coming from residential localities from within as well as from outskirts of the city.
On Thursday, Gujarat recorded 1340 new cases and seven deaths, increasing its Covid-19 caseload to 192982 while fatality count has risen to 3830. There are now 12677 active cases in the state.
Additionally, the State Government has also decided to postpone its earlier decision of resuming secondary to higher secondary schools and colleges from November 23 after the latest Covid-19 scenario in which the state saw rise in cases all over.