Starting Thursday July 8, the Andhra Pradesh government has allowed cinema halls, restaurants, gymnasiums and function halls to open, subject to coronavirus restrictions. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy allowed these relaxations at a COVID-19 review meeting on Monday. However, limited curfew relaxations continue to be in place in East and West Godavari districts. In these two districts, curfew has been relaxed till 7 pm, requiring all businesses to shut shop by 6 p.m. The government decided to continue these restrictions until COVID-19 test positivity rate falls below 5%.
Meanwhile, curfew has been relaxed till 10 pm in all other 11 districts, requiring business establishments to close down by 9 p.m. Following the end of relaxations, COVID-19 curfew will resume in all districts, from 10 pm to 6 am and from 7 pm to 6 am in the Godavari districts.
The government mandated that a seat should be left free between occupied seats in theatres, restaurants, gyms, function halls and others. Similarly, wearing a mask and using hand sanitisers are also part of the COVID-19 protocol. During the review, officials informed CM Jagan that 15,000 oxygen concentrators are ready for deployment whenever needed. The Chief Minister instructed officials to concentrate on vaccination, giving priority to teachers.
Until now, Andhra Pradesh has inoculated 1.28 crore people, out of whom 96 lakh underwent single-shot vaccination and 32.5 lakh have got two shots.