Hyderabad: With the rising COVID-19 cases in Telangana, speculations are rife that the government is likely to impose night curfew in the state. According to several local media reports, the Telangana government is planning to impose night curfew after the Sankranti Festival.
Quoting unnamed sources, local media reported that officials are also devising an action plan to impose restrictions on occupancy rates in public places like movie theatres, pubs and government offices and also on the general movement of people.
It is to be noted that there has been no official confirmation regarding the night curfew and other restrictions in the state as of now. Saisat.com tried to reach out to director public health Dr Srinivas Rao for his comments, but he did not respond to our queries despite several attempts.
However, a reliable source in the government, who didn’t want to be named, confirmed to Siasat.com that there is a high possibility of the night curfew in the state if cases continue to surge in coming days.
Notably, Telangana’s neighbouring states such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka have all imposed restrictions in view of the Omicron threat.
The state reported 2,606 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous day’s tally.
Two more persons succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours ending at 5.30 pm Saturday. The cumulative death toll rose to 4,041 in the state.
Nearly 65 per cent of cases reported on Saturday were from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The neighbouring urban district of Medchal Malkajgiri (292) and Rangareddy (214) stood at second and third place respectively.
The cases were also on the rise in districts like Karimnagar, Mahabubabad, Mahabubnagar, Mancherial, Nagarkurnool and Sangareddy.
The 24-hour period also saw 285 people recovering from the virus. However, with new cases far outnumbering the cases recovered, the recovery rate dipped further to 97.65 per cent.
The state, which has already achieved 100 per cent vaccination of the first dose, is still struggling to improve the coverage of the second dose. This percentage remains at 72. According to officials, about 24 lakh people are due for a second dose.