Pune schools, colleges closed till Feb 28 imposes night curfew amid surge in COVID-19 cases

Pune: The district administration of Pune declared the closure of all educational institutions to curb the sudden surge in coronavirus cases in the metropolitan.

Among other restrictions imposed, hotels, restaurant and wedding venues are allowed to operate only till 11 pm, an order said.

From 11pm to 6am, no public movement will be allowed except for those involved in essential services, in view of rising COVID19 cases. Schools & colleges in the district will remain closed till 28 Feb. New guidelines to be effective from tomorrow: Pune Divisional Commissioner pic.twitter.com/F7iZFTcn0j — ANI (@ANI) February 21, 2021

Not more than 200 people will be allowed in wedding ceremonies and public gatherings.

Notably, the Union Health Ministry issued a note of caution to the state governments and asked for increasing the number of tests and more RT-PCR tests so that no cases are missed out.

Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray government is contemplating imposing a night curfew to curb the virus, State Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar informed the media on Sunday while adding that the decision will be soon taken by the state government.

"In view of rising COVID-19 cases in districts like Nagpur, Amravati, Yatvmal, Maharashtra Government is thinking of imposing a night curfew in the districts. A meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to be held soon to make a decision," he said.

This comes amid a rising number of cases in Maharashtra which has prompted the state government officials to reinforce the coronavirus norms. 

The State Health Department on Saturday (February 20) released information that 6,281 new COVID-19 cases and 40 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.The total cases in the state increased to 20,93,913 including 48,439 active cases and 19,92,530 total recoveries.