Highlights
- BJP MP Varun Gandhi criticized state governments' decisions to impose night curfew to curb Covid.
- The MP called for strongly cutting down on social gatherings which could emerge as Covid clusters.
- As man as 7 states, UTs have imposed night curfew & revised Covid guidelines to curb Omicron so far.
BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Monday criticized state governments' decisions, including Uttar Pradesh, to impose night curfew to curb Covid. He said that the governments should decide what the priority is -to contain the disease or to indulge in a show of strength during elections.
Criticizing the night curfew decision, he said, "Imposing curfew in the night after assembling lakhs of people for rallies in the day defies the common man's wisdom".
Gandhi noted that maximum transmission typically happens during the day, as there are lesser people on the road during the night, and called for strongly cutting down on social gatherings which could emerge as Covid clusters.
He cited a Centre's note to the Maharashtra government in March 2021 which, he highlighted, had said that measures such as night curfews, weekend lockdowns have a very limited impact on containing or suppressing the transmission.
"Hence the administration should focus on strict and effective containment strategy," it had said. Gandhi called for a holistic strategy.
As man as seven states and UTs -- Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have imposed night curfew and revised Covid guidelines to arrest the spread of highly transmissible Omicron variant. According to the Union Health Ministry data, there are more than 575 cases of Omicron variant in the country.
(With PTI inputs)