The Gujarat government on Tuesday decided to enforce the night curfew in four major cities of the state and extended its timings by two hours with effect from March 17 in a bid to contain the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases. The state government has decided to impose a curfew from 10 PM to 6 AM in view of the increasing cases of coronavirus,” the state government said in the statement.

On Monday, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation also asked eateries, restaurants and malls in eight wards of the city to close down at 10 pm. Last month, the state was reporting around 200 new cases every day. Surat has been reporting the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the state, followed by Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot, as per official data.

The curfew will now remain in force in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot from 10 pm to 6 am, an official statement said. The curfew timings earlier were from 12 am to 6 am. The decision was taken on Tuesday in the core committee meeting of the coronavirus task-force headed by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.