Night curfew will be imposed in Andhra Pradesh from Saturday, 24 April amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state. As per Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision, night curfew will come into effect from 24 April between 10 pm to 5 am, Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani) told the media on Friday. The guidelines on the night curfew will be released by the government soon, he said.
Speaking about ramping up COVID-19 testing in the state, the Health Minister said that CM Jagan has advised to conduct testing in the state at full capacity. He also said that complaints have been received about hospitals overcharging patients for CT scans, and warned of action against such practices.
Andhra Pradesh has also announced free COVID-19 vaccines for all beneficiaries aged between 18 to 45 years, from 1 May. “With this decision, more than 2 crore people in the state between 18 to 45 years of age will benefit from free vaccination,” the Health Minister said. The state government will provide the COVID-19 vaccine by bearing a cost of around Rs 1600 crore, he said.
CM Jagan has reportedly directed officials to place orders for vaccines accordingly.
The state government has estimated that there are a total of 2,04,70,364 vaccine beneficiaries in the state between 18 to 45 years of age.
Jagan also spoke with Bharat Biotech’s Managing Director Krishna Ella and Hetero Drugs MD Partha Sarathi on Friday, requesting further allocation of vaccine doses and Remdesivir for Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra has 66,944 active cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the neighbouring Telugu state, Telangana has also announced night curfew recently on 20 April for ten days from 9pm to 5am. As per the order, all the officers, theatres, public and private establishments have to be closed by 8 pm in the state. The night curfew would remain in force till 5am on 1 May.
(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission)
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