The Punjab government on Monday announced fresh restrictions on movement, extended the night curfew by two hours and ordered a strict weekend lockdown in a bid to tackle the surge in coronavirus cases.
“Due to continuous and rapid rise of Covid-19 cases in Punjab, the cabinet has decided to impose daily night curfew from 6 pm to 5 am and weekend lockdown from Friday 6 pm to Monday 5 am. Urge you all to stay at home and step out only if absolutely necessary. Seek your full cooperation,” Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh tweeted after the meeting. At present, night curfew is from 8 pm to 5 am.
Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, who was present in the cabinet meeting, said shops will remain open till 5 pm on weekdays. The cabinet also had a detailed discussion on the oxygen shortage in the state.
Earlier, Amarinder urged the Centre to enhance the daily quota of medical oxygen as the state is facing a critical supply situation due to surge in cases.
“The situation of oxygen supply in Punjab is extremely critical. I request Union home minister Amit Shah and Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to urgently enhance daily quota and to ensure allotted liquid manufacturing oxygen supplies are released to Punjab,” he tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}“The situation of oxygen supply in Punjab is extremely critical. I request Union home minister Amit Shah and Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to urgently enhance daily quota and to ensure allotted liquid manufacturing oxygen supplies are released to Punjab,” he tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the state has left with only 1.9 lakh doses of the vaccine due to the lesser supply of the vaccine from the union government. Out of this available stock, more than 1 lakh doses expected to be used by Monday.
He said the Punjab government has already appealed to the Union government to regularise the supply of vaccines in the state