The government on Thursday announced a relaxation in daily night curfew by two hours in eight metropolitan cities by revising the timing from 1 am to 5 am, citing a decrease in coronavirus cases. On October 8, the state government had announced to extend the ongoing night curfew from midnight to 6 am till November 10 in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Junagadh, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar. However, just days before the Diwali and Gujarat New Year festivals, a notification was issued by Pankaj Dave additional secretary (law and order) Home Department on Thursday night, relaxing the night curfew from October 30 to November 30. “Covid cases have been continuously falling in the state, therefore, after a review of the current situation, the state government has made certain changes to the restrictions announced in the earlier notification on October 8 (sic),” read the order. The notification further stated that all shops, restaurants, hotels, finance offices, carts and small shops, shopping complexes, market yards, weekly markets, haats, hair cutting salons and parlors can be opened till midnight. Restaurants can open till midnight with 75% of seating capacity and home delivery of food can continue till 12 night. Gujarati New Year festive meets can be organised with a maximum attendance of 400 people following Covid guidelines and SOPs in open spaces. In closed spaces, 50% of the maximum seating capacity with maximum of 400 people will be allowed. Similarly, celebrations for Chhath festival can be held in open spaces with maximum 400 attendees, read the order. Meanwhile, another notification order was issued by the state government with similar instructions regarding celebration of Gujarati New Year and Chhath festivals for the rest of the state where night curfew is not applicable.
