Our Bureau

The Gujarat government on Monday decided to cut short the Budget session of the State Assembly and a motion for adjournment was proposed by the Chief Minister Vijay Rupani himself raising coronavirus infection concerns. The motion was accepted unanimously and the house was adjourned sine die on Monday.

Addressing the Assembly, the Chief Minister also informed that Gujarat was passing through a critical phase of coronavirus infection. “We are about to enter the Third Stage (of coronavirus spread) which leads to transmission through community with multiplying effect. It is necessary we adopt social distancing. People should stay indoors,” Rupani stated.

He also stated that the government will take a call on the business chambers’ suggestion to extend the lockdown till March 31 for the entire State as the virus spread continues in the State. The total positive cases of Covid-19 in Gujarat has touched 30 with addition of 12 new cases in past 24 hours. Of the new cases, five are infected through local transmission.

Looking at the gravity of the situation, businesses in the State have proposed to the Chief Minister to implement a state-wide lockdown till March 31.

After a video-conference with business chambers of the State, Rupani stated that currently, six districts of the State are under lockdown till March 25. “But the business chambers have suggested me that we extend this lockdown till March 31. We will take a call on this at our internal meeting of the government committee. But they have assured us full cooperation to implement a complete lockdown. We are also ensuring essential services continue to have smooth functioning,” he added.

The State labour department has also assured no pay-cut or lay-off for employees or workers staying at home till April 15 amid Covid-19. All registered office and business establishments are asked to follow the direction. Meanwhile, it has also asked people to grant leave to domestic help/maid and cooks till March 31 without any pay cut.

As per the State health department, Ahmedabad district has the maximum 13 positive cases, followed by Vadodara with six, Surat and Gandhinagar four each and Rajkot and Kutch with one each. The State reported its first death on Sunday. A 67-year old male from Surat having travel history of Delhi-Jaipur died of Covid-19. So far, a total of 422 samples have been taken, of which 375 samples were negative while the results for 17 are awaited.

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