Night curfew in Jalandhar from Saturday amid surge in COVID-19 cases

Night curfew will be in place from Saturday 11 pm to 5 am until further notice in Punjab's Jalandhar district following the continuous surge in the COVID-19 cases.

"Observing the hike in the COVID-19 cases in Jalandhar district, night curfew has been imposed from 11 pm to 5 am from March 6 and will be applicable till further notice," read a notice issued by the office of Jalandhar District Magistrate Ghanshyam Thori on Saturday.

Curfew has been imposed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973 and the National Disaster Management Act, 2005.

According to the union health ministry's update on Saturday morning, Punjab had 6,661 active cases. As many as 5,898 people have so far lost their lives to COVID-19 in the state.

The central government has, meanwhile, rushed high-level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab in view of the increase in the number of daily new COVID-19 cases being consistently reported by these states.

The teams will visit the hotspot areas in the states and ascertain the reasons for the surge. They will also brief the Chief Secretary and Secretary (H) on their observations and remedial measures to be undertaken by the state health authorities.

( With inputs from ANI )