A DAY after issuing a warning to rein in youngsters flouting Covid-19 guidelines of social distancing and mandatorily wearing face masks, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Monday ordered all shops, eateries and markets at 27 popular locations across the city to remain closed between 10 pm and 6 am. To be implemented with immediate effect, the order issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Forests and Environment) Rajeev Kumar Gupta exempted medical stores from closure. Blaming the irresponsible behaviour by the city’s youth that puts elders in their families at risk, the AMC stated that a higher rate of admissions and deaths in hospitals has been reported in recent days. Despite the civic body carrying out a campaign to check these violations in the city for the past few days, the flouting of Covid protocols by youths in specific areas has been repeatedly reported, Gupta’s order stated. “During the last 10-15 days, flouting of Covid guidelines by city’s youths - including not wearing face masks, not wearing it properly, gathering in groups and not maintaining social distancing - have come to light. These activities are reported from the city’s specific areas especially during night,” it further mentioned. Hence, the AMC has ordered all shops, eateries and markets except medical stores to remain closed from 10 pm to 6 am at 27 popular locations from where incidents of gatherings were being reported. Most of these stretches are known to be popular hangouts among the youth. These include Prahladnagar road, YMCA till Kake da Dhaba, Prahladnagar Garden till Palladium Circle on the Corporate road, SG Highway, Isckon Crossroad to Shapath-IV and V service road, Sindhu Bhawan Road, Bopal-Ambli Road, Isckon till Bopal Ambli road, Isckon-Ambli road till Hebatpur road area, Science City road, Shilaj circle till Science city circle road on the SP Ring road, Ambli circle till Vaishnodevi circle on the SP ring road, CG road, Law Garden including Happy Street, Municipal Market and Panchwati Circle, Vastrapur lake, Mansi circle till drive in road, Drive-in road, Honest till Shyamal crossroad, Shyamal bridge till Jivraj crossroad, Baliyadev temple till Jivraj crossroad, IIM road, Shivranjani till Jodhpur crossroad, area around Royal Akhbar tower, Sonal Cinema road till Ambar tower including Vishala circle, Sarkhej Roza till Cadilla circle till Ujala circle and Sanand crossroad till Shantipura crossroad. Majority of these areas put under a night vigil fall under the western zones - west, southwest and northwest - that also have the highest caseload of active coronavirus cases in Ahmedabad as of Monday,contributing over 51 per cent of the city’s active cases. Out of the seven zones with 3,810 active cases, the three zones alone have 1,954 active cases, making for 51.28 percent of the total share.
