Amid declining coronavirus (Covid-19) cases and deaths, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday ordered lifting of night curfew and end to Sunday lockdown in the state.

The relaxations announced by the CM also include increasing the limit on the number of people for marriage functions and funerals to 100 in Punjab in accordance with the Union government’s guidelines as well as easing the limit of three persons in a car and 50 per cent capacity in buses subject to the condition of windows being open.

Capt Amarinder, however, has directed Director General of Police, Dinkar Gupta, to ensure strict adherence to Covid protocols, with immediate action against those violating the mandatory condition of wearing masks.

There should be no laxity, especially in view of the ongoing paddy procurement operations and the forthcoming festival season, the CM said.

On the issue of reopening of schools and educational institutions, which the Centre had left to the states to decide post 15 October under Unlock 5.0, the decision of the Punjab government will be announced after due deliberations between the home secretary and the education department.

During a virtual meeting held to review the Covid situation in the state, the CM took note of the trend of decline in the coronavirus cases and said the restrictions imposed earlier by the state government had helped.

However, he expressed concern over the increase in cases in rural areas, even though numbers in cities or towns were going down.

In a brief presentation earlier, the state’s expert health committee head, Dr K K Talwar, said the positivity rate in the state had come down from 10.85 per cent on 14 September to 5.12 per cent on 28 September.

The number of deaths and patients on ventilators had also shown a decline during this period, he said. The state’s Covid death rate currently stands at 2.9 per cent, with deaths per million at 112.5 per cent. The recovery rate has gone up to 82.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, strict monitoring of asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic Covid patients under home isolation will begin in Punjab from Friday, with the state government engaging a consortium of professional home healthcare companies for their regular monitoring.

Health secretary Hussan Lal said a private healthcare company has been hired for the purpose, and their professional health care tele-callers will monitor, on a daily basis, the health of Covid patients under home isolation for less than 10 days. The consortium has the experience of such monitoring in other states, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Karnataka.