Srinagar: An 84-hour lockdown will be imposed in 11 districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday evening in a bid to tackle the surge in COVID-19 cases, a senior official said.
The union territory had on Tuesday recorded its highest single-day spike of 3,164 COVID-19 cases, which took the tally to 1,66,054, while 25 fatalities over the last 24 hours took the toll to 2,197.
The curfew will come into effect at 7 pm on Thursday and remain in force till 7 am on Monday, Secretary of the Disaster Management Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Department Simrandeep Singh said on Wednesday.
“Eleven districts including Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam, Kulgam, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Jammu, Kathua, Reasi, Udhampur will be under ‘corona curfew’ from Thursday evening (7 pm) till Monday morning (7 am)”, Singh said.
The detailed orders under the Disaster Management Act listing out prohibitions and permissible activities will be issued by the deputy commissioners, he said.
Earlier, the UT administration had announced a 34-hour curfew from 8 pm on Saturday.
On April 08, a night curfew from 10 pm to 6 am was imposed in the urban areas of eight districts, which was extended to the municipal and urban local body limits of all the 20 districts in the UT on April 20.
Meanwhile, Anjuman Auqaf Jama Masjid Srinagar today decided to suspend all congregational prayers at the Masjid for the time being in the wake of surge in Covid-19 cases.
Though the Masjid was strictly following the Covid related SOPs but given the huge number of positive cases, the management has taken the decision for the safety of the Nimazis.
A statement issued by the Anjuman Auqaf said that only Azan (call for prayer) will be allowed within the Masjid.
