Centre orders night curfew, stringent Covid-19 curbs in high caseload districts

The Centre on Thursday directed state and UT governments to impose stringent curbs on movement of people in districts having test positivity rate of more than 10 per cent and hospital bed occupancy of more than 60 per cent.

The direction from the Home Ministry came as India continued to report new Covid-19 cases in excess of three lakh for the eighth consecutive day on Thursday.

In an order issued under the National Disaster Management Act, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla directed state and union territory governments to consider containment measures for Covid-19 as conveyed by the Health Ministry advisory of April 25.

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The Health ministry had asked the States and UTs to identify districts where either the tests positivity had been 10 per cent or more in the last one week; or, where bed occupancy was more than 60 per cent.

The Health Ministry had prescribed intensive and local containment measures in districts fulfilling any of the above two criteria.

It had asked states to impose night curfew, ban social, political, religious, cultural, sports entertainment gatherings, and shut down shopping complexes, cinema halls, restaurants and bars, sports complexes, gym, spas, swimming pools, and religious places.

The advisory stated that both government and private offices should function with a maximum staff strength of 50 per cent.

The Home Secretary also asked district magistrates to strictly enforce the containment measures taken by States and UTs and the national directives on Covid-19 management.

Of the 728 districts across the country, only 308 have a test positivity rate of 5 per cent or less.

As many as 146 districts have a test positivity rate of 15 per cent or more, while in 278 districts the test positivity rate is between 5 per cent and 15 per cent.