Patna: The Bihar government on Wednesday announced new COVID-19 restrictions in the wake of surging Coronavirus cases. As per the new guidelines, it has been ordered that shops/commercial establishments will close at 4 pm daily while the timing of the night curfew will now be from 6 pm to 6 am. Presently, the timing for shops/commercial establishments functioning was till 6 pm and night curfew was in force from 9 pm to 5 am. The decisions were taken at the meeting of the crisis management group chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during the day. The new restrictions will be applicable from April 29 till May 15.
Check list of curbs as part of new COVID-19 guidelines:
- The congregation at the marriage functions has been lowered to 50 persons from 100 at present.
- For the last rites, gatherings have been limited to 20 in place of 25.
- Government and other offices will function only with 25 per cent attendance till 4 pm.
- Essential services have been exempted from the curbs.
Development Commissioner Amir Subhani, who briefed the media on the new curbs, said the state government will meet the cost of conduct of last rites of COVID victims and also those testing negative but having symptoms of the deadly virus. He further said that in order to increase strength of the doctors and paramedics, walk-in interview will be held for recruitment for one year time.
COVID-19 Cases in Bihar
The second surge of coronavirus has wreaked havoc in Bihar, with Patna being the worst hit- witnessing the maximum number of daily cases and casualties. As per the last medical bulletin, out of 12,604 new coronavirus cases across Bihar Tuesday, Patna accounted for 1,837. The state capital reported 22 fatalities out of the 85 fresh deaths.