Hyderabad: In the wake of the Telangana High Court coming hard on the administration for doing enough to contain the spread of disease, the Government announced the imposition of night curfew between 9pm and 5am till May 1.
It may be noted that the court had said if the government did not impose curfew, it would be compelled to order one.
In the last 24 hours, 5,926 new cases were reported from across the state. This is the highest single-day spike in cases since the detection of the first COVID-19 case last March.
Greater Hyderabad reported 793 new cases on Monday while 18 persons succumbed to the disease taking the total fatalities to 1,856. As many as 42,853 persons are currently active and undergoing treatment. At present, the cumulative caseload in Telangana stands at 3,61,359.
On Monday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had tested positive for coronavirus.
According to Tuesday’s government order, all offices, firms, shops, establishments, and restaurants, etc shall close at 8 pm.
This is, however, not applicable to hospitals, diagnostic labs, pharmacies, and those dealing with the supply of essential services such as – print and electronic media, telecommunications, internet services, broadcasting, and cable services. Petrol pumps, LPG, CNG, Petroleum, and gas outlets are exempted from these restrictions.
Those involved in the delivery of goods through e-commerce and those employed in IT and IT-enabled services are also exempted. Others who are exempted from the latest orders are people employed in power generation, transmission, and distribution, water supply and sanitation, cold storage and warehousing, private security services, and production units or services that require continuous process, according to the GO.
The order also prohibits the movement of all persons after 9 pm, except for people in the services mentioned above.There is no restriction on the commute for officers of the central and the state governments, including those of urban local bodies and Panchayati raj institutions on emergency duty on production of valid identification.
All private medical personnel including doctors, nursing staff, paramedics, and providers of other hospital services, etc are allowed to commute on the production of valid ID.Pregnant women and patients seeking medical care are allowed to commute.
Also, persons going to airports, railway stations, bus stands are allowed to commute on the production of valid tickets, the order states. Public transport services including autos and taxis are allowed to function within the stipulated time for the transportation of the above-mentioned categories of people during the period of night curfew.
