Rajasthan orders 12-hour curfew in all cities starting April 16

New Delhi: As Rajasthan reels under rising COVID-19 cases, the state government on Wednesday (April 14) announced a strict night curfew to be imposed from Friday. Keeping in view COVID-19 crisis, the guidelines have been issued which will come into effect from April 16 to April 30.

The curfew will start from 6 am and last till 5 pm across all cities. The markets can remain open till 5 pm, while all schools and educational institutions will be shut. 

The curfew has been clamped from 6 pm to 5 am but business establishments will remain closed from 5 pm to 5 am so that the staff members get time to reach their places of accomodation before the curfew period.

The Ashok Gehlot-led government put a restriction on the maximum number of people at weddings to 50 while sports and public events have ben banned. 

Among other restrictions, the rules state that restaurants and cafes will be allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity. Gyms and swimming pools will remain closed till the end of this month.

People entering the state will need to provide a negative RT-PCR report.

The state government has also decided to postpone the state education board examinations for classes 10 and 12.

Earlier, the state government had imposed a night curfew in nine cities. As per an order issued earlier the night curfew was imposed in nine cities-Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Abu Road starting from 8 pm to 6 am, till April 30.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan on Wednesday recorded is the biggest single-day high of 6,200 new COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths in the last 24 hours.