India’s Ahmedabad curfew order triggers panic buying in city

AHMEDABAD, Nov 20, 2020, India Today. People started panic buying on Friday, following Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s announcement of the imposition of a night curfew in view of the prevailing coronavirus situation in the city, India Today reported.

Scores of people thronged Kalupur Market on Friday morning after the civic body announced on Thursday that the night curfew will be imposed from 9 pm on Friday (November 20) to 6 am on Monday (November 23) to curb the sudden spike in coronavirus cases in the most prominent city in Gujarat.

Only shops selling milk and medicines will be allowed to open during this two-day curfew.

Meanwhile, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani clarified on Friday morning that there is no possibility of a fresh lockdown in the state. He said, “The weekend curfew announced is limited to Ahmedabad city as a precautionary measure. There are no talks about a fresh lockdown.”

“Police personnel have been ordered to strictly implement rules pertaining to wearing masks and maintaining social distance,” he added.

IAS officer of Gujarat, Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta, had earlier tweeted, “The coronavirus situation was reviewed late at night and it was decided that the full curfew will be imposed in Ahmedabad from 9 am Friday to 6 pm Monday. During this period, only shops selling milk and medicines will be allowed to remain open.”

With this, the decision to reopen schools in Ahmedabad from November 23 has been withdrawn. Apart from this, the Vijay Rupani government has deployed 300 doctors, 300 medical students and 20 additional ambulances in Ahmedabad.

Data released by the Gujarat government’s health department on Thursday has put Ahmedabad’s tally of confirmed cases at more than 45,000 till date. This includes more than 40,000 recoveries and nearly 2,000 casualties.

There are 12,677 active cases in all of Gujarat, as per the state government’s Covid-19 dashboard last updated on Thursday. This includes 87 patients who are currently on ventilator support. The state reported 1,340 new cases on Thursday along with another 1,113 recoveries and seven more Covid-related deaths. Gujarat has conducted 70,33,156 Covid-19 tests till date, including 54,907 in the last 24 hours.