In a bid to contain the spread of Covid19 in the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR), the district administration has announced to impose a night curfew from May 1 next.

The restrictions will come into effect at 9 pm daily and will remain in place till 5 am until further orders.

Itanagar Capital Region district magistrate in-charge Talo Potom in an order on Friday said the curfew has been imposed following an unprecedented surge in Covid19 cases.

The ICR registered a total of 66 new cases on Thursday taking the total number of active cases in the region to 290.

The district magistrate said the situation of Covid19 in the ICR has been reviewed and there is an urgent need to consider strict Covid management and control measures to bring the situation under control.

“It has been observed that COVID-19 appropriate behaviour is not being followed by the general public which may cause a setback in the appreciable gains made in the suppression of chain of transmission of Covid19 cases,” the order said.

“Hence, as an emergency measure for the well-being and safety of the people and in order to contain the spread of COVID-19 it is felt that night curfew needs to be imposed in the territorial jurisdiction of ICR,” the order read.

The administration has, however, given exemptions to all essential activities and services.

Officers involved in emergency services, medical and police personnel, fire and emergency services, district administration and disaster management related services have been kept out of the purview of the curfew.

Officers and officials related to the functioning of offices of diplomats, persons holding constitutional posts and the media have also been exempted from the curfew.

Any person violating the order will be liable to be proceeded against as per the provisions of Section 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides legal action under Section 188 of the IPC, the order read.

The ICR district administration had in a separate order on Wednesday prohibited all religious congregations and public gatherings in any public or commercial establishments.

Damien Lepcha is Northeast Now Correspondent in Arunachal Pradesh. He can be reached at: [email protected]