Gandhinagar: The ‘Janta Curfew’ being observed across the country from 7 am to 9pm today on the appeal of PM Narendra Modi as a measure to contain the spread of deadly Novel Corona (Covid 19) virus, has evoked a wide and spontaneous response in his home state Gujarat.

The roads in the most populous city of Ahmedabad and other major cities including Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Capital Gandhinagar and others smaller cities and towns wore deserted looks.

The staff of various civic bodies including the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation have also taken up a fumigation drive in an attempt to de-infect the public places.
The areas of cities and towns which in normal days looked heavily crowded also looked deserted.

Notably, the state has so far tested 14 people positive with Covid19 infection and 12 of them have recent foreign travel history. Among them the maximum 5 was in Ahmedabad, 3 each in Vadodara and Surat and one each in Rajkot, Gandhinagar and Kutch.

Making best use of #JantaCurfew call given by PM Narendrabhai Modi and watertight response given by the countrymen, the Amdavad Fire & Emergency Services jawans are out in full strength to execute a citywide drive to sanitize and disinfect the public places today @DeshGujarat pic.twitter.com/MzM8nCnwJT

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) March 22, 2020

The state government as a pro-active measure in fight against the deadly disease had closed all its schools and tourist spots much before the detection of even the first case.
CM Vijay Rupani has also taken various other steps including to close down crowded places in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot, till March 25. However, essential services such as supply of milk, vegetables, fruits, grocery, general stores, medical stores, medical clinics, hospitals, and laboratories, companies producing medical equipment, pharmacies and health services will continue to function normally in these four major cities during the virtual lock-down.

Other essential services such as municipal corporations, panchayats, electricity, insurance, internet, telephone, and IT, banking, ATM, banks’ clearing houses, stock exchanges, and godowns of essential commodities, and very essential services such as railways, transport, petrol pumps, water supply, and sewerages, and media, newspapers, foods, paste control, and shops and institution connected to the production, transport and supply and e-commerce and others would also continue to function normally.

It has also been decided that half of the the total employees of class 2 to 4 in all government offices, boards-corporations, and local governing bodies will attend their duties on rotational bases till March 29. However, this will not be applicable to the employees and officials of the local governing bodies who are connected with the essential services and those who are directly involved in prevention of spreading of the Coronavirus. They must attend their duties routinely.

It has also been decided to use newly built 1200-beds hospital at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, as the ‘Infection Isolation Hospital’ for the positive cases of the disease from tomorrow. Similarly, ‘Infection Isolation Hospital’ with capacity of 250 beds in Rajkot, 250 beds in Vadodara, and 500 beds in Surat would also be made operational.

DeshGujarat