Gurgaon malls reopening next week, containment zones in distt to face more curbs

Chandigarh: Shopping malls in Gurgaon will be allowed to reopen next week while religious places will stay closed amid sterner curbs on containments zones in the district, said officials on Friday. Gurgaon Municipal Corporation Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh spelt out the administration's plans to tackle the COVID-19 spread in the Haryana's worst-hit district during a press meet.
Singh addressed the press conference in Gurgaon along with Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri and Deputy Commissioner of Police Nitika Gehlot.

Shopping malls in Gurgaon district will be allowed to reopen next week with due adherence to all anti-COVID precautions, including the maintenance of social distancing norms, he said, adding violations of lockdown's standard operation procedure will be dealt with sternly.

In case of violations, malls may even be ordered to close down again, he said.

In response to a question, Singh said at present there is no plan to open religious places.

Under the Centre's June 8 'Unlock-1' plan after the 84-day-long, country-wide lockdown since March 25, shopping malls and religious places were not opened in Gurgaon due to a sudden spike in COVID cases in the district.

Gurgaon has emerged as the worst-hit district in Haryana with nearly 5,000 cases of coronavirus infection and 81 fatalities so far.

After reporting around 150 cases daily for several days, the prevalence of infection, however, has shown a comparative stabilizing trend with only around 100 cases being reported for the last three to four days.

Amid reports that there could be limited lockdown in Gurgaon, Deputy Commissioner Khatri said no lockdown is to be imposed in the district, which, however, will face sterner curbs on its containment zones, numbering 107 at present.

He said intensive screening will be done to check the health of people living in those areas.

Out of the total 4,944 cases in the district, 3,267 people have been cured.

He said that there has also been an increase in testing and on an average, 700 samples are being tested daily.

RTPCR testing machines have also been installed in the civil hospital and rapid antigen test kits have also been received by the district.

The official told reporters that five private labs have been issued show-cause notices by the district civil surgeon for not taking correct address and phone numbers of suspected patients during sample collection.

Apart from this, 800 challans have been issued by the Municipal Corporation to those violating social distancing norms and not wearing masks and so far, a fine of Rs 4 lakh has been recovered on account of lockdown breaches.

Besides, five FIRs have been registered against those who were allegedly found spreading rumours about COVID-19 in the public.