Pune: 12-hour night curfew from Apr 3-9; hotels, restaurants to be shut

To curb the coronavirus surge, a 12-hour night curfew from 6 pm to 6 am will be imposed in Maharashtra's Pune district from tomorrow, said an official on Friday.

"The situation will be reviewed again next Friday. Religious places will also be completely closed for the next seven days, said Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao while announcing Covid-related restrictions. 

Except weddings and last rite rituals, all other public gatherings have been banned in the district. For weddings, only 50 people will be allowed and only 20 people can remain present forlast rites, he added. He said that essential services have been exempted from the 6 pm to 6 am curfew.

The decision to impose these curbs was taken during a review meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar here on Friday.

Bars, hotels, restaurants will remain closed for 7 days and only home delivery will be allowed. No public function, except funerals and weddings, will be allowed. Maximum 20 people in funerals and 50 in weddings. Order to come into effect from tomorrow, said Rao.

Buses of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML), city's public transport system, will remain off roads for the next seven days, Rao said, adding that schools and colleges will remain closed till April 30.

According to Rao, efforts were on to increase the number of beds in hospitals in the district. "Since vaccination is the key to bring down the impact of infection, the speed of giving vaccines will be increased in the coming days," he said.

Siddharth Shirole, an MLA from Pune's Shivajinagar constituency, said on Twitter that "Bars, Malls, Cinema Halls, PMPML Buses, Religious Places, Weekly Vegetable Markets will be closed for next 7 days".

Pune district in Maharashtra reported as many as 8,011 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, which pushed its cumulative count to 5,42,422, a health official said.

This is for the second consecutive day the district has recorded more than 8,000 cases.

On Wednesday, the district had reported 8,605 new infection cases, its biggest single-day spike ever since the pandemic began last year.

Its fatality count reached 10,039 as 65 patients succumbed to the infection during the day.

"Of the total number of new cases, 4,103 were reported from the areas located within the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, where the caseload has gone up to 2,73,446," the official said.

Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune city's neighbouring industrial township, reported 2,113 new cases, which pushed its overall count to 1,42,251.