COURTESY HT JULY 16
Haryana health dept suggests weekend curfew in Gurugram
COVID OUTBREAK: Offices and markets, other than essential activities, may be shut on Saturday and Sunday; Govt also planning strict curbs in other districts bordering Delhi
People cross the Delhi-Gurugram border in Udyog Vihar, Gurugram. Haryana home minister Anil Vij on Tuesday said the government was contemplating imposition of strict curbs in districts bordering Delhi to control the rising number of Covid-19 cases. parveen kumar/ ht
HT Correspondent
htreporters@hindustantimes.com
Gurugram : A day after Haryana home minister Anil Vij said the government was contemplating imposition of strict curbs in districts bordering Delhi to curb the rising number of Covid-19 cases, the district health department said they were likely to propose a weekend curfew in Gurugram on the lines of Uttar Pradesh, where offices and markets, other than essential activities, are shut on Saturday and Sunday.
“We will be proposing a weekend curfew, whereby all shops will remain shut for two days on weekends and will be allowed to open from Monday to Friday. In the two days, cleanliness and sanitisation drives will be conducted to break the chain of transmission. It has to be done on the lines of Uttar Pradesh,” Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said.
In Gurugram, the Covid-19 tally breached the 7,000-mark on Wednesday. 82 new cases were reported, taking the total count of infected persons to 7,208, out of which 1,021 are active cases, while 6,077 have recovered.
The Covid-19 death toll stands at 110, with one more death reported on Wednesday. Till now, 73 deaths have been due to co-morbidity and 37 without co-morbidity.
Vij, who also holds the health portfolio, had on Tuesday said the state government was planning to impose strict curbs in districts bordering Delhi as “majority of Haryana’s cases are concentrated in Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat and Jhajjar”. “So, we are discussing imposing restrictions to contain the spread of the virus. We will go ahead after considering all aspects,” he said.
A senior state government official aware of the development said, “Imposing a weekend curfew is still in the proposal stage as we are looking at other aspects such as avoiding congestion in markets if Saturday and Sunday remains closed. In the current situation, we do not want places to be congested as it could lead to easy transmission of coronavirus. Only after considering all these factors, a decision will be taken.”
Rakesh Malik, president of the Sector 22 market association said imposing curfew or lockdown again in the city would hit business very badly.
“Already business is down and people are trying to revive whatever is left. If the curfew is imposed, we will have no option but to close shops. This would further cause closure of more business. It is better to strictly enforce social distancing,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Uttar Pradesh government directed a two-day weekend restriction, where markets are allowed to open from 9am to 9pm from Monday to Friday.
Industrial units are allowed to function but there are restriction on social activities. Likewise, the Union Territory Chandigarh is planning to impose weekend curfew to control the surge in number of cases