Night curfew extended in Andhra Pradesh till September 30

The Andhra Pradesh State Government has extended the night curfew till 30 September. The curfew timings will remain the same. The decision was taken by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during a review meeting held at Amaravathi on Tuesday. This decision was taken in view of the pandemic situation and as precautions for the third wave. 

According to the State Government release, the night curfew in Andhra Pradesh will continue to be from 11 pm to 6 am. In case of any weddings or other events in the state, not more than 150 people will be allowed. All the people in public places are expected to continue following Covid-19 protocol. If any individual violates the rules, strict action would be taken under Sections 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, and other relevant laws. 

It may be noted that Andhra Pradesh has been under night curfew from July and the relaxation timings have been slowly extended. Additionally, in view of Vinayaka Chavithi 2021, the night curfew had been extended further. 

Currently, the city police are regularly imposing fines on those who do not wear masks at public places. Major junctions in the city have been deployed with traffic police teams to impose fines on those who violate curfew rules and stay out after 11 pm. 

On Wednesday, Visakhapatnam District reported 69 Covid-19 positive cases, taking the total to 1,55,945. 

A similar situation is being observed in other Indian states like Gujarat and Goa as well where the curfew has been extended despite the number of daily Covid-19 cases being relatively low.