Gandhinagar, Apr 7 (IANS): After the Gujarat High Court's advice to impose lockdown or curfew in Gujarat for 3-4 days to curb the pandemic outbreak, the Gujarat government announced that night curfew will be clamped in twenty other major cities from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting Wednesday till April 30. Night curfew is already in place in four major cities of Gujarat.

There has been a significant rise in the number of coronavirus cases, especially in financial capital of the state, Ahmedabad and the Diamond City Surat. Even as the Gujarat High Court made an observation and advised the government to impose a 3-4 day lockdown or curfew on weekends, Tuesday saw the highest spike of positive cases of 3,280, following which the government decided to impose a night time curfew in twenty major cities of Gujarat, apart from the four major cities Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot where night curfew is already effective from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The government has also banned political or social gatherings till April 30 and reduced the number of guests who can attend a marriage ceremony to hundred from two hundred. Other gatherings have also been limited to a maximum of fifty.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani chaired a high powered core committee meeting late on Tuesday evening where the decision to impose night curfew was taken.

"The High Court gave some suggestions and we have decided on it. Earlier we had imposed a curfew in four major cities of the state. Now we have decided to clamp night curfew in 20 other cities," Rupani said.

The CM also informed that the central government will send a team of medical experts to Gujarat which will help the state government devise a strategy to check the rise in the cases.

Apart from Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot where night curfew is in force, other sities where this has been extended include Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Gandhinagar, Anand, Nadiad, Mehasana, Morbi, Dahod, Patan, Godhra, Bhuj, Gandhidham, Bharuch, Surendranagar and Amreli.