Day 7: COVID-19 curfew continues in Kashmir
Srinagar: Jehangir Chowk in main city Srinagar wears a deserted look as authorities impose 84-hour lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections, April 30, 2021.
Strict covid curfew related restrictions remained in place across Kashmir on the seventh straight day on Wednesday even as police seized several vehicles and registered cases for violations. The covid curfew was announced by the government last week after J&K recorded surge in COVID-19 cases.
The essential services have been exempted from the lockdown.
The officials said that 2,943 people have been fined and 395 others arrested for violating curfew and covid guidelines since April 29. Earlier, on Tuesday evening, the administration had announced extension in the ongoing ‘corona curfew’ in four districts of the union territory, including Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam and Jammu, till the morning of May 10.
The extension in the lockdown has come in the backdrop of unabated rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Kashmir, particularly in the summer capital Srinagar, which has recorded the large number of positive cases in the last 20 days.
Meanwhile, roads wore a deserted look on Wednesday as shops and business establishments remained closed and traffic was off the roads in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir; security forces had closed majority of the roads with barbed wires and barricades to prevent public movement.
The administration amid the covid curfew is allowing groceries, milk and dairy product shops, fruit and vegetable wholesale market, bakery and meat shops to function between 0900 hrs and 1800 hrs.
Chemist shops, LPG/petrol pumps, ATM, media, FCI, e-Commerce, construction activities, Covid-19 vaccination, interstate movement are also allowed during the lockdown.
Police said on Wednesday many vehicles were seized in Budgam, Bandipora and some other areas of Kashmir for violating lockdown orders.
They said that so far about 3,000 people have been fined and about four hundred people arrested for violating lockdown.
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