Uttarakhand government revises night curfew timings. Details here

The Uttarakhand government has extended the night curfew, imposed to check the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), by an hour. It will now be in place from 10pm to 6am, instead of 10pm to 5am.

The hill state is a popular tourist destination and has been taking various steps to check the inflow of people and reduce the spread of the infection.

The state government has imposed a ban on religious gatherings on Makar Sankranti, prohibiting devotees from taking bath in the Ganga in Haridwar and Rishikesh.

The entry of devotees to Har ki Pauri in Haridwar, Triveni Ghat in Rishikesh, and other ghats has been banned, Haridwar collector Vinay Shankar Pandey and Dehradun district magistrate R Rajesh Kumar said in their separate orders.

The Uttarakhand government has also announced that hotels, dhabas and eateries will be allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity.

While anganwadi centres, schools and other educational institutions will remain closed till January 16, conference halls, spas and gyms in hotels are allowed to utilise 50 per cent of their capacity while hosting guests.

These guidelines come in the wake of a spike in Covid-19 cases in Uttarakhand over the past few days, with a total of 2,127 infections reported on Tuesday and 1,292 the day before.

Tuesday’s count was the highest single-day spike in over seven months, according to state health department. The state had reported 2,146 cases on May 27. One Covid patient also died in Uttarakhand on Tuesday.

Dehradun district reported the maximum number of 991 cases, followed by Nainital (451), Haridwar (259), Udham Singh Nagar 189 and Pauri 48.

The state has so far reported eight cases of the new and highly-mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to Union health ministry.