Andhra Pradesh: Curfew further relaxed in 11 districts from July 8

Amaravati: Following the decline in Covid cases, the State government on Monday decided to further relax curfew timings from 6 am to 10 pm from July 8 barring two Godavari districts.

During a review on Covid-19, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to allow cinemas, restaurants, gyms and function halls to operate from July 8 strictly adhering to Covid protocols, including alternate seating in cinemas and restaurants with 50 per cent seating capacity by mandating masks and sanitisers. However, all shops and commercial establishments should close by 9 pm.

In East and West Godavari districts, the night curfew will be enforced from 7 pm to 6 am and the restrictions would be in place till the positivity rate drops below five per cent.

In regard to oxygen supply, the Chief Minister directed the officials to complete the establishment of oxygen generation plants in the next two months with full production capacity. The authorities informed that 15,000 oxygen concentrators are available in the State and explained the work in progress at 134 Oxygen generation plants at 97 locations.

Further, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to focus on vaccination, prioritising teachers after it reaches 90 per cent vaccination to all those aged above 45 years. He told the authorities to complete vaccination for the government employees on priority by department wise, including the pregnant women.

The officials said that the government is already vaccinating mothers of children under the age of five.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that there were 35,325 active cases at present and 6,542 patients are being treated in hospitals.

They said 5,364 people are being treated at Covid care centres and 23,419 are under home isolation. The officials added that the recovery rate has increased to 97.47 per cent and positivity rate has decreased to 3.66 per cent.

They said the positivity rate is less than 3 per cent in five districts and almost 93.40 per cent of patients in network hospitals are being treated under Aarogyasri scheme. The authorities stated that 3,670 black fungus cases were registered till date of which 295 persons died and 2,075 were discharged. In regard to vaccination, so far 1,28,84,202 people have been vaccinated, where 96,25,316 have got single dose vaccination and 32,58,885 have completed the two-dose vaccination.

Deputy Chief Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani), Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, DGP Gautam Sawang, Covid Command and Control chairman Dr K S Jawahar Reddy, Covid Task Force Committee chairman MT Krishna Babu, Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal, Health Secretary M Ravichandra, Health Commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, 104 call centre in-charge A Babu, APMSIDC VC and MD Vijayarama Raju and other officials were present.