The Jharkhand government has decided to impose night curfew in the state from Wednesday till the end of this month in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases.

A high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Hemant Soren and attended by state health minister Banna Gupta, chief secretary Sukhdeo Singh and senior officials of other government departments, including health and disaster management, in Ranchi decided to impose a night curfew between April 8 and 30.

“The night curfew would come into effect from 8pm and continue till the morning and start from April 8 for a month. During the night curfew no shops, barring medical shops and other emergencies, would be allowed to be open. More than four persons would not be allowed to be gathered at one spot during this time,” said a notification issued by the state government on Tuesday evening.

The night curfew would be in force from 8pm to 6am.

School, colleges and coaching institutions will also be closed along with gyms, clubs and parks.

For marriage functions, a maximum of 200 people will be allowed on the condition of strictly following Covid-19 norms.

This apart, the government has strictly prohibited religious processions and fairs anywhere in the state.

“People can gather at religious places but authorities would have to ensure that only 50 per cent of the capacity of the religious places are allowed inside... at any point of time. However, no
religious procession or fairs can be held anywhere in the state,” the notification added.

Ram Navami falls on April 21 which witnesses processions by devotees in large numbers across the state.

However, students appearing for their board examinations (ICSE, CBSE and state boards) will be allowed to go to their exam centres during this period.

Jharkhand registered the largest number of positive cases in a single day on Monday amid the second wave of the coronavirus with 1,086 and as many as 10 deaths.

The total number of fatalities has touched 1,140. Ranchi with 37,125 positive cases and East Singhbhum with 19,554 have been the largest contributors in terms of positive cases out of a total number of 1,27,246 cases.

The state’s seven-day doubling rate is 126.63 days, a tad more than the national average of 136.20 days.

Jharkhand also has a higher recovery rate of 94.52 per cent as against the national average of 92.80 per cent, while it has a mortality rate of 0.88 per cent, much less than the national average of 1.30 per cent.