Curfew Extended In Himachal Pradesh Till May 26 Amid Spike In Covid Cases

The Himachal Pradesh government has extended the curfew to break the chain of the coronavirus in the state till May 26. A three-hour daily relaxation in the curfew would be provided for opening essential commodity shops, informed the state government.

All the shops dealing with construction materials would also remain open on Tuesday and Friday in a week for three hours in order to check the exodus of labourers and workers, it said.

Himachal Pradesh is under a lockdown from May 7 to May 17.

The cabinet also decided that marriage functions would only be allowed in houses or courts with 20 invitees. There will also be no wedding procession, it said.

The decision was taken in a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday.

The cabinet has also decided to allow medical colleges, zonal and regional hospitals and hospitals with bed capacity of 200 and above to hire hearse vans. It also said that free wood will be provided by the forest department for cremation of those who died of COVID-19 where forest rights are enforced, and fuel wood would be provided by the forest corporation in other areas.

The COVID-19 death count in Himachal Pradesh rose to 2,185 on Friday with 67 more fatalities, the highest single-day rise so far, while 3,044 new cases pushed the infection tally to 1,53,717, a health official said.