Ahmedabad shuts malls, theatres on weekends amid rising COVID cases

In a bid to control the spread of COVID-19 which has started troubling Gujarat again, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on March 19 decided to shut malls and multiplexes on weekends.

However, a movie theatre owner expressed his disappointment and said multiplexes witness most footfalls on weekends, and the decision to shut them on Saturdays and Sundays will affect them harshly.

"We are very upset as multiplexes were shut for 7 months and we had just started to settle down.

On Saturdays and Sundays we expect most footfalls," he said.

As a preventive measure, 23 new areas are identified as micro containment zone.

Government also imposed night curfew from 9pm to 6am in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat registered 1,276 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours.