Andhra Pradesh will be put under night curfew to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the state from Saturday. The restrictions will be in place from 10pm to 5am, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.
The decision to impose the seven-hour curfew was taken during a high-level Covid-19 review meeting chaired by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday. According to deputy chief minister (health) A K K Srinivas (Nani), only essential and emergency services, like medical and health services, will be allowed to function during the curfew.
“We had an extensive discussion with the chief minister on the steps to check the spread of coronavirus as the cases are peaking again. Night curfew was one option, along with intensive vaccination,” Nani said, according to news agency PTI.
Read More:-Andhra Pradesh: Lockdown in Ongole and 18 towns in Prakasam district
The Deputy CM added that the Covid-19 vaccine will be provided free of cost to all those above the age of 18. There are an estimated 2.04 crore people in the 18-45 age group in the state, according to PTI, and a vaccination drive for this group could cost the state ₹818 crore to ₹900 crore.
The announcement came on the day when the state crossed the 1 million Covid-19 infection-mark as 11,766 more people were infected with the virus on Friday. With this, Andhra Pradesh became the fifth state in the country, after Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to aggregate over 10 lakh coronavirus cases so far, according to a state health bulletin.
As many as 4,441 patients recovered while 38 succumbed to the disease in 24 hours, according to the bulletin. With this, the active caseload jumped to 74,231 after a total of 9,27,418 recoveries and 7,579 deaths.
