Gandhinagar, The Gujarat government on Friday extended the duration of the night curfew in eight cities by two hours amid the spike in the cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, officials said.

According to a notification, the change in the timings will be effective from December 25 in the cities of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar.

Gujarat has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases of late.

On Thursday, more than 100 new cases were reported in a single day after nearly seven months. On Friday, it saw a little less than 100 cases, including 13 with Omicron variant.

The state has also reported 43 cases of the Omicron variant so far. These cases have been reported in Municipal Corporation areas of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Gandhinagar and Mehsana, Anand and Kheda.

Following the rise in cases, the Gujarat government has extended the night curfew timings by two hours.

On Friday, a notification was issued by the state home department. The curfew would be in force from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. instead of 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.

"Commercial activities in shops, restaurants, shopping complexes, marketing yards, marts, hair cutting saloons, beauty parlours among others in these eight cities are allowed to remain open till 11 p.m.," said the notification.