Night curfew to continue in Vizag till 31 October; RK Beach closed after 10 PM

The night curfew in Vizag and the rest of Andhra Pradesh has been extended till 31 October 2021. However, taking into account the low number of Covid-19 cases being reported daily, the curfew timings have been reduced. The announcement was made on Wednesday by the Andhra Pradesh State Government. Now, the curfew will begin at midnight and end at 5 AM. While the Covid-19 curve has flattened in Visakhapatnam, cases are still being reported. This could be sighted as the reason behind the extension of the night curfew in the district. 

Earlier, the curfew in Visakhapatnam used to begin at 11 PM and go on till 6 AM. Now, with the new timings, the night curfew will only last 5 hours and will facilitate early morning joggers and meditators. 

Talking about imposing the night curfew in Vizag, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Ch Adinarayana shared, “The night curfew will now begin from midnight and end at 5 AM. But RK Beach will be closed for visitors and travellers after 10 PM. All shops and restaurants in the city are to be closed by 10 PM. Vehicular movement will be allowed only on the highway after midnight.”

Meanwhile, the rule on public gatherings continues to be in place. Any kind of function in the city, be it a wedding or a religious gathering or anything else, cannot have more than 250 people attending. But the earlier order of keeping one seat empty has been done away with and people can now revert to the pre-Covid-19 seating arrangement. This ruling will help theatre managements in Vizag in allowing more people into theatres and hence, recovering from the losses suffered during the pandemic. 

On Tuesday, Vizag reported 31 cases of Covid-19, taking the number of active cases to 202. The state reported 517 Covid-19 cases on the same day, with none of the 13 districts reporting zero cases.