Surat: With wedding season expected to be in full bloom in the coming months, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is keeping a close eye on the venues across the city as large gatherings of people could possibly result in a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The civic body is gearing up to ensure that arrangements are in place to contain the virus from spreading through wedding venues.
Post Diwali, the city has witnessed a massive increase in coronavirus cases and numbers of bed occupancy is steadily increasing in private as well as government hospitals in Surat city.
“At present, the rise in Covid-19 cases were due to Diwali festivities. We have carried out aggressive testing to isolate infected patients and hospitalize them for timely treatment. Now, the wedding season is in full bloom till December 15 and gatherings would take place at wedding venues,” Banchhanidhi Pani, municipal commissioner, Surat, told TOI.
The SMC teams are contacting wedding venue owners and event managers to ensure that all the guidelines are enforced by invitees. Masks are a must and sanitisers should be in place for all guests at the venue, said Pani.
“We are now focusing on wedding venues across the city where gatherings would take place. We will provide Dhavantari Raths at marriage venues on demand and it will be a free-of-cost service. These raths will conduct tests at venues and help us identify infected guests if any and isolate them,’‘ Pani added.
SMC officials said nearly 400 wedding venues in the city which will host weddings up to December 15 as kamurta (inauspcious period) sets in on December 16.
On Sunday, SMC created 134 new microcontaintment zones covering 143 houses. As of Sunday, there are a total of 1419 microcontaintment zones covering 1.25 lakh population and 29,994 houses in the city.