Third wave: Punjab notifies lockdown due to spike in COVID-19 cases

LAHORE: The Punjab government has imposed a lockdown in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases during the third wave of the pandemic, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department of Punjab issued a notification regarding the imposition of new restrictions on public movements in order to curb the spread of coronavirus which would be effective till May 17.

Under the new restrictions, all kind of activities will be banned across the province from 6:00 pm to Sehri, whereas, the complete holiday will be observed on weekends (Saturday and Sunday), as well as in some districts, holidays will be observed on Friday and Saturday.

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All genre of business activities will be closed on Saturday and Sunday, however, petrol pumps, medical stores, vegetable and meat shops, stores of essential commodities and vaccination centres will be exempted from the restrictions.

Indoor and outdoor wedding and other genres of ceremonies will be completely banned and a complete lockdown will be imposed in the districts having more than an 8 per cent positivity rate of COVID-19 cases.

Restaurants and shrines will be closed in the affected districts including Jhang, Kasur, Khanewal, Lahore, Multan, Mandi Bahauddin, Okara, Rahim Yar Khan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Sheikhupura and Vihari.

Read: Punjab orders closure of private, government schools till Eidul Fitr

According to the notification, train service will be resumed with the capacity of 70 per cent passengers, whereas, government and private offices will be restricted to send their 50 per cent employees to work from home. The timing of all offices will be 9:00 am to 2:00 pm across the province.

Wearing face masks was declared mandatory for every citizen while coming out of their homes.

Indoor meal service will be completed banned in restaurants; all amusement parks will be closed with exception of the walking and jogging tracks.

The provincial government imposed a strict ban on all gyms, cinema halls, sports, cultural and other genres of events.

For public transport, the government allowed to resume the facility for citizens with a capacity of 50 per cent. However, inter-provincial transport will be completed closed on Saturday and Sunday.