Night curfew in Gujarat extended by two hours in 8 major cities

Ahmedabad, Dec 24: The Gujarat government on Friday extended the duration of night curfew in eight cities by two hours amid Omicron concerns and an increase in daily new coronavirus cases.

The curfew will be in place between 11 pm and 5 am instead of 1 am to 5 am, the latest notification from the state home department said. It will come to effect from December 25 in the cities of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar, it said.

"Commercial activities in shops, restaurants, shopping complexes, marketing yards, marts, hair cutting saloons, beauty parlours among others in these eight cities are allowed to remain open till 11 pm," said the notification.

The notification added that other restrictions imposed in view of the pandemic will remain in force as per the order dated November 30, 2021.

Of late, the cases of Covid-19 has seen a rise in Gujarat. On Thursday, more than 100 new cases were reported in a single day after nearly seven months.

The state has also reported 30 cases of Omicron variant so far. These cases have been reported in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Jamnagar and Gandhinagar.

Meanwhile, the curfews have been imposed in several states like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu among a few others. PTI