An 84-hour lockdown began in 11 districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday evening in a bid to tackle the surge in COVID-19 cases, officials said.
The Union Territory had on Tuesday recorded 3,164 new COVID-19 cases and 25 fresh fatalities, prompting the government to impose a coronavirus curfew.
The curfew came into effect at 7 pm on Thursday and remain in force till 7 am on Monday, they said.
“Eleven districts comprising Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam, Kulgam, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Jammu, Kathua, Reasi and Udhampur will be under “corona curfew” from this evening till Monday morning,” the officials said.
In Jammu city, police have put barricades at various places in the city including entry and exit places, they said.
Meanwhile, the administration also announced that the curfew will also be imposed in the remaining nine districts from Friday evening (7 pm) till Monday morning (7 am), officials said.
Earlier, the UT administration had announced a 34-hour curfew from 8 pm on Saturday.
On April 8, a night curfew from 10 pm to 6 am was imposed in the urban areas of eight districts, which was extended to the municipal and urban local body limits of all the 20 districts in the UT on April 20.
Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday recorded its biggest single-day spike of 3,474 fresh COVID-19 cases and 26 coronavirus-related deaths, also the highest in the Union Territory for a 24-hour period.