Gujarat govt announces complete lockdown till March 31 to combat spread of Coronavirus

With an aim to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the Gujarat government on Monday joined the list of states such as Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, declaring a total lockdown starting from midnight till March 31. All modes of public transport including buses, auto and metro will remain closed during the lockdown. Private vehicles will also be checked and enquired at inter-state borders.

The decision came after Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held a top-level meeting with cabinet ministers, IAS and IPS officials. Just as many other states permitted essential services to run as usual, the same will apply in Gujarat.  Petrol, diesel and other fuel pumps will remain open. Besides, banks, ATMs, financial technical services, stock exchange, courier, security, etc will also function as usual.

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Coronavirus cases surge to 29 in Gujarat

Eleven new coronavirus cases were reported in Gujarat, taking the total number of those infected by the deadly virus in the state to 29, the state health department said on Monday. Among the new patients, five are males and six females. Of these, five cases are of local transmission and six patients have a history of recent visits to countries like Saudi Arabia, France, Sri Lanka and the UK, it said.

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With this, Ahmedabad now has a total of 13 cases, Vadodara-six, Surat and Gandhinagar-four each, and Kutch and Rajkot-one each, the health department said. So far, one coronavirus patient has died in the state. The death of a 69-year-old man was reported from Surat on Sunday. He had interstate travel history and was suffering from various ailments like kidney failure and asthma, officials earlier said. The Health Department of Gujarat also said that there has been another death in Vadodara - a 65-year old woman, whose COVID-19 results are awaited. 

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