LUDHIANA: In a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection, the Ludhiana district administration has imposed night curfew between 9 pm to 5 am for an indefinite period.
"We have imposed night curfew between 9 pm to 5 am till indefinite period. We will do a review later but now it is for an indefinite period. Night curfews are intended to discourage unnecessary gatherings at night," informed Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner, Varinder Sharma.
"For the last two weeks, the number of cases has increased quite much. Earlier, we used to do 4000 tests with about one per cent positivity rate, now it has gone up to 5-6 per cent. The average number of deaths per week was seven, now it is 25-30. This is a cause of worry," Sharma said.
He further added that another cause of concern is the consistent rise in the number of hospitalisations.
"At present, we have 377 hospitalised patients, which was 27 two weeks ago. More and more younger people are being hospitalised and also from far-flung places, not just from the cities," he further said.
"We are going to hold a meeting with big hospitals today and will increase the number of beds in them," he added.
He also urged the people to strictly comply with COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, mask-wearing, and follow social distancing."
I also appeal to the public to get vaccinated. The central and state governments have spent crores of money to build the infrastructure. We have to trust science. I have already had two jabs, we are fine," he added.
Meanwhile, India has reported 39,726 fresh COVID-19 cases, 20,654 recoveries and 154 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry.
As many as 3,93,39,817 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered till 8 am on Friday in what is billed as the largest vaccination drive in the world.