JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ordered on Thursday imposition of night curfew in the urban areas of eight districts, including Jammu and Srinagar, to check the spread of the soaring coronavirus cases.
The night curfew will come into effect from Friday, the office of the Lt governor said.
"Directed the divisional administration to impose corona curfew from 10 pm to 6 am in the urban areas of 8 districts affected by the recent COVID spike," it tweeted.
These districts are Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam, Anantnag and Kupwara, it said.
The curfew will be in force in the municipal limits of the urban local bodies of these districts.
Reasi district will be under close observation for any possible spikes in cases, it added.
Jammu District Magistrate Anshul Garg on Thursday declared several areas as micro-containment zones to contain the soaring coronavirus cases.
The area in and around Government Gandhi Memorial, Science College, Canal Road, falling under the Nowabad police station, and area in and around Sanskrit University, Kanger Morh, Bhalwal, falling under the Gharota police station, were declared as micro-containment zones, an official said.
This followed the detection of COVID-19 cases in the educational institutes during a sampling drive.
Quoting an order issued by the district magistrate, the spokesperson said these areas would be under strict lockdown and tight perimeter control, except for essential needs.
"There shall be no movement, whatsoever, in and out of the micro-containment zones," the spokesperson said.
He said it would be mandatory for the persons residing in designated containment zones to get themselves tested and any refusal in this regard would invite action, including filing of an FIR under the Disaster Management Act.
"The magistrate and the SHO of the area shall ensure that 100 per cent sampling and testing is done," the spokesperson said.
He said the Jammu chief medical officer would ensure deployment of sufficient teams for sampling and surveillance of the designated zone.
He would ensure contact tracing of positive cases and their testing as per the SOP, the spokesperson said, adding that the district control room would monitor strict home and medical isolation of all positive cases reported from the zones twice on daily basis.
"Any violation of this order shall invite punitive action under section 188 of Indian Penal Code and other relevant sections of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005," the order said.
All travellers coming to Kashmir by road shall undergo coronavirus tests in Kulgam district, an official said on Thursday.
Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Aijaz Asad chaired a meeting to review the coronavirus situation, a spokesperson said.
Asad said the testing for travellers coming by road shall be started in Lower Munda area in a couple of days as this would help in containing the spread of virus in the Valley.
The deputy commissioner said mass vaccination of hotel staff, drivers, houseboat staff and others shall be started across all tourist destinations.
A special training programme shall be conducted for the staff members to ensure that all standard operating procedures are followed strictly while dealing with the tourists, he said.
Asad urged the tourism stakeholders to ensure proper sanitation and hygiene in all hotels.
The deputy commissioner asked the hoteliers to keep two rooms available for isolation of tourists in case they test positive.
Dr Gazalla, the incharge COVID-19 testing at Srinagar Airport, deliberated on the importance of vaccination.
Various tourism stakeholders from Srinagar, Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg also attended the meeting.
The tourism players raised various demands, including hiring of separate hotel accommodation for isolation of infected tourists, permission to tourists to the valley only after their RT-PCR test reports, improvement in testing facility at the Airport and sanitation of hotels.