Curfew in 2 Ahmedabad areas till Apr 21 to contain pandemic

Curfew will be imposed in Old City (Fort) and Danilimbda areas of Ahmedabad city from 6 am Wednesday to contain the spread of coronavirus, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced on Tuesday.

It will continue till 6 am on April 21, he said.

Both areas have a large Muslim population. Many COVID-19 cases have been reported from these two areas.

Before making the announcement, Rupani held a meeting with Congress MLAs Gyassuddin Sheikh, Imran Khedawala and Sailesh Parmar who represent assembly constituencies which cover the two localities.

Gujarat has so far recorded 615 COVID-19 cases, a bulk of them from Ahmedabad city.

"Ahmedabad city has over 350 cases and many of them have come from the Fort area (Old City). We have decided to impose curfew in the Fort and Danilimbda areas from Wednesday morning," Rupani said in a Facebook video.

"The area has many (infection) hotspots. Nobody should come out of their houses in these two areas for the next few days. Police will ensure strict implementation of curfew," he added.

"Our health department team will work hard to contain the spread of COVID-19 in these areas in the next few days and everybody should cooperate with it," he said.

People of the two localities will not face any problem getting essential commodities, the chief minister assured.

"We will relax curfew from one pm to four pm every day when essential items such as milk, vegetables, groceries or medicinescan be bought. But only women will be allowed to venture out during the period of relaxation," he said.

He welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to extend the lockdown till May 3.

"Lockdown will be strictly observed in the entire state till May 3 to defeat coronavirus. I urge people to cooperate with the state administration in the implementation of lockdown as they have done in the first 21 days," he said.