With the state’s Covid positivity rate sliding to 0.4%, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday ordered lifting of weekend and night curfew, and allowed gatherings of 100 persons indoors and 200 outdoors from Monday, while directing the Punjab’s Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta to challan all political leaders violating the Covid rules while holding rallies and protest meetings.
Bars, cinema halls, restaurants, spas, swimming pools, malls, museums, zoos, and sports complexes will now open but staff and patrons must have taken at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Though schools will continue to remain closed, colleges, coaching centres and all other institutions of higher learning shall be allowed to open by the Deputy Commissioner concerned, subject to a certificate having been submitted, that all teaching, non-teaching staff and students have been given at least one dose of vaccination, at least 2 weeks ago.
The Punjab CM, while reviewing the Covid situation virtually, said the situation will again be reviewed on July 20. Strict use of masks must be ensured at all times, the Chief Minister directed, while announcing the easing of restrictions.
Punjab’s Health Secretary Hussan Lal said four districts showed positivity of 1 per cent or less in the state but also advised caution in districts like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur, and Ropar.
