Punjab has announced a night curfew from 6 pm to 5 am during weekdays & a weekend lockdown from 6 pm on Friday to 5 am on Monday, to combat the rapidly increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the state. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh tweeted on April 26 night to ask for the people's co-operation and urge everyone to "stay at home and step out only if absolutely necessary.” Like several others, the state has reported a frightening surge in new Covid-19 cases over the past few weeks; daily new cases have shot up from fewer than 600 in late-February to nearly 7,000. The increase in cases has also left hospitals struggling to find beds, medicines & oxygen for critically ill patients, whether they are Covid-19 positive or suffering from some other illness. The oxygen crisis, in particular, has made the headlines. Meanwhile, Karnataka has announced a two-week lockdown from April 27, a day after reporting the biggest rise of over 34,000 new cases in 24 hours. Karnataka on April 26 reported 34,804 cases which takes its total cases to 13.39 lakh. India is battling a devastating second Covid-19, with over three lakh new cases reported in each of the past three days and the active caseload skyrocketing to more than 28 lakh.
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