PremiumUttarakhand government today modified its COVID-19 guidelines in which it has reduced the number of people permitted to attend weddings and other functions to 50. The government has also allowed district magistrates to impose curfew and other restrictions to curb COVID spread.
Several steps such as weekend curfews in all districts and a closure of all government offices for sanitisation till Wednesday have been taken to break the chain of the virus,in Uttrakhand.
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Premium Uttarakhand recorded its highest single-day rise in COVID fatalities with 81 deaths on Saturday as well as the highest surge in cases with 5,084 people testing positive for the disease.
On April 21, the state government said that night curfew will now begin at 7 pm instead of 9 pm and will continue till 5 am, officials said on Wednesday.
The Uttarakhand government has also ordered the closure of markets in urban areas barring shops dealing in essential commodities from 2 pm onwards.
The order aimed at checking the spread of COVID-19 comes into effect from Wednesday, Chief Secretary Om Prakash said.
"The night curfew timing for all 13 districts has been revised from 9 pm-5 am to 7 pm-5 am," it said.
The order of closing shops and business establishments also applies to shopping malls, he said.
Premium Premium Considering the likelihood of people from Uttarakhand working in Delhi returning home in the wake of a six-day lockdown in the national capital, online registration and a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours has been made mandatory for the returnees.
All schools, degree colleges, institutes and coaching centres have been closed. The revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) also makes it mandatory for all modes of public transport, including buses and auto rickshaws, besides facilities like cinema halls, restaurants, bars and gyms to run at half their seating capacity.
It orders complete closure of swimming pools and spas in all districts. Organising religious, political and social functions will be completely prohibited in containment and micro containment zones. Uttarakhand reported its highest number of COVID-19 cases in a day on Tuesday with 3,012 people testing positive for the infection
People in the 18-45 age group will be inoculated against COVID-19 for free in Uttarakhand.
Making the announcement here on Friday, Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said the exercise will begin in the first week of May.
A population of around 50 lakh will be covered under the drive, which will cost an estimated ₹400 crore to the state exchequer, Rawat told reporters.
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