The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has decided to reimpose a lockdown across the territory for two weeks in the wake of an “alarming spike” in Covid-19 cases.

The lockdown will come into effect from 12am on Sunday (November 22) and will last until 12pm on December 6.

Public transport, however, will be allowed to operate with “strict” adherence to standard operating procedures, the AJK cabinet decided today in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider.

“This difficult decision was inevitable as the situation with regard to the spike in Covid-19 in a small territory like ours had become alarming,” senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq said at a media briefing.