The Telangana government has decided to impose night curfew in the state from Tuesday night till morning of May 1, to control the spread of Covid-19.
The restrictive orders will be in place from 9 pm till 5 am, with all offices, firms, shops, establishments, restaurants etc to close by 8 pm.
Medical services like hospitals, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and those dealing with supply of essential services like media, telecom, IT, ITES, delivery of all goods by e-commerce, petrol pumps, LPG, CNG, and gas outlets are exempted from the curfew.
The decision comes a day after the Telangana High Court expressed concern over bars, pubs, malls, theatres etc being open. It has asked the state to take immediate actions to curb the virus spread and posted the matter for Friday.
Telangana has been reporting a steep ascent in new cases for a few days now. On Monday, the state health department recorded 5,926 new cases and the active cases at present are at 42,853. The state has a cumulative Covid-19 case count of over 3.61 lakh. The daily case numbers are higher than those recorded during the first wave last year.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also tested positive for the virus on Monday.
According to the government order on Covid-19 curfew issued on Tuesday by chief secretary Somesh Kumar, movement of all persons is prohibited from 9 pm except essential workers journalists, state and central government employees, all private medical personnel such as doctors, nursing staff, paramedics and providers, pregnant women and patients for moving for the purpose of receiving medical care, and persons coming from/going to airports, railway stations, bus stands on production of valid ticket.
Public transport services including autos and taxis would be allowed to function within stipulated time for the transportation of above mentioned categories of people during the period of night curfew.
“Any violation of the instructions shall result in prosecution under Sections 51 to 60 of Disaster Management Act 2005 and Section 188 of IPC and other applicable laws,” the chief secretary said.
There will be no restriction on inter-state and intra-state movement/transportation of essential and non-essential goods. No separate permission/pass will be required for such movement.