Puducherry announces two-day lockdown amid rising COVID cases, guidelines issued

Amid a steep rise in COVID-19 cases, Puducherry on Tuesday announced a completed lockdown. The lockdown will kick in on the night of  April 23, Friday and will remain in effect till the morning of April 29, Monday. The order of the lockdown comes right after the night curfew order that came earlier in the day. 

Restrictions during the night curfew

The night curfew will be in effect from 10 pm till 5 am every day. As per the curfew order, all hotels, restaurants and food courts will be permitted to operate till 8 pm with only 50 percent capacity. They have also been asked to make arrangements to fix transparent plastic barriers on tables and counters, so as to avoid COVID-19 transmission. The delivery of food will be allowed till 10 pm. The beaches will be open only till 5 pm. 

As far as the shops are concerned, they have been asked to adhere to COVID related protocols, and maintain social distancing. In case of crowding in congested vegetable, fish and other roadside markets, the police and collectors have been given the job to disperse the crowd. 

For marriages taking place in the Union Territory, the number has been fixed at 100 while for funerals, it has been fixed at 50. On Monday, Puducherry clocked 565 fresh COVID cases and 5 deaths, pushing the caseload to 48,336 and the death toll to 713. 

COVID-Tally in India

Meanwhile, for the sixth day straight, India breached the 2 lakh mark with a record single-day rise of 2,59,170 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the active caseload to breach the 20-lakh mark with 20,31,977, which is 13.26 per cent of the total infections. The recovery rate has dropped to 85.56 percent while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.18 percent. 

(CREDITS-PTI)