The Delhi government on Tuesday imposed a night curfew in the national Capital, from 10 pm to 5 am, with immediate effect, ANI reported. The restriction will stay in effect till April 30.

The decision came amid rising number of cases in the city. On Monday, Delhi reported 3,548 cases and 15 deaths, as the city saw its tally rise by over 3,000 cases for the fourth consecutive day.

However, on Friday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that his government was not planning to impose a lockdown in the city, even as he admitted that the ongoing wave of the pandemic was resulting in an exponential rise in cases. The chief minister had urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and had requested the Centre that it should allow vaccination for all people without keeping any eligibility criteria. He also asked Centre to give permission to administer the shots at facilities other than hospitals and health centres.

On Monday, the Delhi government decided to keep coronavirus vaccination centres operational for 24 hours.

The Delhi government’s decision on night curfew was announced two days after Maharashtra issued a fresh set of guidelines in the state, including similar restrictions and weekend lockdowns. However, a report said that days before the Uddhav Thackeray government decided to impose the restrictions, the Centre had told the state that such measures have limited impact on containing transmission of the infection.