Puducherry: COVID-19 restrictions, night curfew extended till October 31

The Puducherry government, on Friday, issued an official order to extend COVID-19 restrictions, including night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am till October 31. The government order informed that 100 individuals will be allowed to attend weddings and 20 people will be allowed to attend funerals at any given moment.

Further, in order to protect people from COVID-19 infection, the government has recommended that all persons be vaccinated as soon as possible. "Failure to get vaccinated will entail enclosure of entity," it added.

The order comes after Puducherry recorded 37 new cases of COVID-19 in 24-hours, according to government data released on Friday.

COVID-19: Puducherry night curfew, lockdown extended

Puducherry's lockdown measures, including a night curfew, have been imposed in the Union Territory with effect from October 15, according to the government directive. Social gatherings are strictly prohibited. Hospitality establishments are allowed to open with strict COVID-19 restrictions and precautions in place. Religious places are allowed to remain open till 10 pm. 

India's COVID-19 cases lowest since March 2020

According to data published by the Union Health Ministry on Friday, India recorded 16,862 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 3,40,37,592, while active cases fell to 2,03,678, the lowest in 216 days.

According to data updated at 8 am on October 15, the death from the 2019 coronavirus rose to 4,51,814, with 379 new fatalities. For the past 21 days, the daily increase in new infections has been below 30,000, and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for the past 110 days.

The active cases account for 0.60 % of total infections, the lowest since March 2020, according to the ministry, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.07 %, the highest since March 2020.

On Thursday, 11,80,148 tests were conducted, bringing the total number of COVID-19 detection tests completed in the country to 58,88,44,673. The daily positive rate was 1.43% on average. For the past 46 days, it has been less than 3%. The positivity rate for the week was 1.42 %. According to the ministry, it has been below 3% for the past 112 days.

India's vaccination cover surpasses 97 crore

The total number of doses given out in the country as part of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign has surpassed 97.14 crore. The Union Health Ministry announced on Friday that more than 100 crore COVID-19 vaccination doses had been distributed to states and UTs. The states and UTs still have around 10.53 crore (10,53,11,155) balance and unused vaccination doses to distribute, according to the Ministry.

The vaccine push has been boosted by the availability of more vaccines, advance awareness of vaccine availability to states and UTs for better planning, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain. The Centre has been helping the states and UTs by providing them with free COVID-19 vaccinations as part of the nationwide vaccination programme.

(With inputs from PTI/ANI, Image: Pixabay)