DW BUREAU / shimla The Covid curfew in Himachal Pradesh has been extended with several more relaxations till further orders, an official spokesperson said here on Friday. The buses within the state will ply with 50 per cent occupancy and shops will remain open from 9 am to 5 pm from June 14, he added. The decision to extend the curfew was taken on Friday in the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The curfew will continue from 5 pm to 5 am in the state till further orders, the spokesperson added. Intrastate public transport will be allowed with 50 per cent occupancy and the timing of opening of shops has been increased from 9 am to 5 pm from Monday. Earlier the shops were allowed to open from 9 am to 2 pm. However, the shops except those of essential commodities will remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays. It was also decided that the offices will function with 50 per cent of staff from Monday, the spokesperson said. All the medical colleges, ayurvedic colleges and dental colleges will open from June 23. Pharmacy and nursing schools will open from June 28. Now there will be no requirement of RT-PCR negative tests for entering in the state, the spokesperson added. Nine more people died from COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Friday, taking the death toll to 3,351, while 505 fresh cases pushed the state's infection count to 1,97,943, an official said. According to the Health Department, the state currently has 5,879 active cases. The overall recoveries has reached 1,88,691 with 957 patients recovering from the infection in the past 24 hours, the official said. The daily COVID-19 count in India remained below the one-lakh mark for the fourth consecutive day with the country reporting 91,702 fresh cases, while the daily positivity rate dropped to 4.49 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. With the fresh cases, the total tally of cases has climbed to 2,92,74,823. The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,63,079 with 3,403 fresh deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases further declined to 11,21,671 comprising 3.83 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 94.93 per cent. A net decline of 46,281 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. Also, 20,44,131 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 37,42,42,384. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.49 per cent . It has been less than 10 per cent for the 18th consecutive day, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has also declined to 5.14 per cent. Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for 29th consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,77,90,073, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.24 per cent, the data stated. Cumulatively, 24,60,85,649 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive. (editor@dailyworld.in)