Punjab imposes statewide night curfew, closure of schools & colleges
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Jan, 2022 01:19 PM
Chandigarh, Jan 4 (IANS) With the spike in Covid-19 cases, Punjab on Tuesday imposed statewide night curfew daily from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and ordered closure of all educational institutions till January 15.
The educational institutions include the schools, colleges, universities and the coaching institutions. However, these institutions are expected to maintain the academic schedule through online teaching.
However, medical and nursing colleges may continue to function normally.
Only fully vaccinated staff will be allowed to attend the government as well as private offices, working spaces, factories and industries. No service will be provided in government or private offices to persons not wearing proper masks, said a notification by Principal Secretary (Home) Anurag Verma.
All bars, cinemas halls, multiplexes, malls, restaurants, spas, museums, zoos, etc., will be allowed to operate with 50 per cent capacity subject to all staff present being fully vaccinated.
The air-conditioned buses will run with 50 per cent capacity, it added.
The detection of two cases of Omicron, the latest variant of Covid-19, in Karnataka was not unexpected in view of the interconnected world that people live in, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, said on Thursday.
In a major reprieve to traders ahead of the assembly polls, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday decided to exempt about 1.50 lakh cases from assessment related to cases of 'C' form from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ahead of the next year's Punjab Assembly elections.
Stating that the BJP government should stop attempting to divide farmers even at this stage - two days after the three farm laws were repealed in the Parliament, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday on condemned the government's statement that it does not have data about farmers' death.
Leaked toxic Methyl IsoCyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide of India Ltd (UCIL) factory started affecting the residents of Madhya Pradesh capital city Bhopal, especially those residing in the southeast direction from the factory, around 2 a.m. on the intervening night of December 2 and 3 in 1984.
The Indian government, before taking any final decision on the resumption of international flight operations, is "closely monitoring" the situation emerging out of the detection and spread of coronavirus' Omicron variant.
