COVID-19: Maharashtra imposes night curfew from Jan 10 amid surge in cases

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 8 : In view of the rising COVID-19 cases in the state, the Maharashtra government on Saturday imposed a night curfew between 11 pm to 5 am from January 10.
As per the new COVID-19 guidelines, the movement of people in groups of five or more has been restricted from 5 am to 11 pm and no movement has been allowed from 11 pm to 5 am, except for essential services.
Swimming pools, gyms, spas, beauty salons, zoos, museums, and entertainment parks will remain closed until further orders.
Schools, colleges and coaching institutes will remain closed till February 15, with few exceptions in the state.
In addition to that, the government has now asked the private offices to operate at a 50 per cent capacity and only fully vaccinated employees' can attend the office physically.
In Maharashtra, hotels, restaurants, cinema halls, auditoriums will operate at 50 per cent seating capacity till 10 pm. The hair cutting salons and malls will operate at 50 per cent capacity.
"Restaurants will operate between 8 am and 10 pm with mandatory disclosure of full capacity and the present number of visitors on a notice board. Home delivery is allowed every day. The same rule is for cinema theatres as well," it said.
A maximum of 50 persons allowed in marriages, 20 in funerals and last rites, 50 in social, religious, cultural, political gatherings.
The guidelines further said that only fully vaccinated persons will be allowed in public transport.
According to the new rules, for domestic travel, double vaccination or mandatory negative RT-PCR test report is required.
"Double vaccination or mandatory negative RTPCR test report valid from upto 72 hours of the time of arrival into the state. This shall apply to air, train as well as on-road passengers. This will apply for drivers, cleaners and other support staff that may be travelling," it said.
There is no change in local trains as all public transport will function as usual but only fully vaccinated people will be allowed.
All competitive exams being held at the National level shall be as per the GOI guidelines, Hall tickets for these exams shall be a valid document to prove essential purposes for movement.
"All competitive exams being held at State level where hall tickets have already been issued and dates of examination have already been notified shall be conducted as notifies. All further examination shall be conducted only after sanction of SDMA," it added.
Meanwhile, 41,434 new COVID cases, 9,671 recoveries, and 13 deaths were reported in Maharashtra in the last 24 hours.
There are 1,73,238 active cases in the state.