Night curfew timing now extended in Noida & Gzb

Noida: While cases are rising alarmingly, the administration of both Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad district have extended the restrictions of night curfew from 8 pm to 7 am starting from Thursday.

The decision comes after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, held a virtual meeting with officials to review Covid preparedness and decided to revise curfew timings in 10 districts including Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Gorakhpur. The decision has been taken as all of these districts including GB Nagar and Ghaziabad have been witnessing a worrying surge in Covid cases with over 2,000 active cases at present.

As per a senior administrative officer, exemptions have been given for essential services, home delivery and other services during the curfew hours.

"Dining at restaurants and hotels during the curfew hours has been prohibited while home delivery of food has been allowed. People moving out of their homes without any reason will be penalised. Strict actions will be taken against those found not wearing masks on roads or public places," the officer said.

Meanwhile, the sub-divisional magistrate, Prasunn Dwivedi, ordered to shut down two wholesale vegetable markets of the city at Kasna and Dankaur area of Greater Noida for 24-hours on Thursday. The SDM observed that people gather in mass number at these markets while the Covid protocol including wearing of a mask and maintaining social distancing are merely followed which increased the risk of the spread of the virus.

On Thursday, the highest single-day spike of Covid cases was witnessed in Ghaziabad district with 538 positive cases in a span of 24 hours. GB Nagar district also recorded the highest tally in a 24-hour period with 489 positive cases taking the cases tally to 28, 926.

With 181 patients getting recovered from coronavirus, the active cases in GB Nagar are 2, 334 while in Ghaziabad it is 1, 723.