With cases of the COVID-19 infection soaring in Gujarat, the government announced broad measures on Saturday practically locking down four main cities — Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot — till March 25 to slow the pace of its spread.
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The measures announced late in the night mandate all business and commercial establishments, except grocery stores, pharmacies, fruit and vegetable outlets and dairy parlours, to remain shut till March 25.
These measures are intended to force people stay indoors.
Agencies other than essential public service departments will be shut. Government offices and agencies will work with just 50% staff on a rotation basis.
Seven more positive cases were reported from the State on Saturday taking the number to 14. All except one of the new cases reported from Gandhinagar, Surat, Kutch and Ahmedabad had recently returned from abroad.
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“One person in Surat who is infected has no recent history of travel, while the others recently returned from abroad,” said Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who is also Health Minister.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani visited the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and declared that the new 1,200-bed civil hospital would exclusively cater to the treatment of those infected with the virus and would serve as the nodal infection control centre.
He also deputed Cabinet Ministers to various cities like Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat to oversee the Heath department and the administration’s initiatives to contain the spread.
The State government has also decided not to operate public transport services and municipal transport services on Sunday as part of the Centre’s public curfew initiative.
