Lockdown extended in Bihar till May 25, shop timings tweaked

PATNA: The Bihar government on Thursday extended the lockdown for another 10 days while revising the timing of the opening of shops selling essential items. Shops in urban areas will open between 6 am and 10 am while the timing will be 8 am-12noon for rural areas. Also, the number of guests allowed at weddings has been cut to 20 with a ban on 'Baraat' and loudspeakers.
CM Nitish Kumar on Thursday afternoon posted a tweet announcing the extension of the lockdown from May 16 to May 25. Nitish said in his tweet that a positive response to the lockdown and after discussion with cabinet ministers and senior officers, it has been decided to extend the lockdown by 10 days. The state had imposed a lockdown from May 5 to 15 in the wake of the massive surge in Covid-19 cases.
Briefing on the guidelines for the extension, chief secretary Tripurari Sharan said, "The lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of Coronavirus. A review meeting was held at the level of the chief minister on Wednesday to take feedback from DMs and other field officers. Another meeting was held at the government level on Thursday and it was finally decided to extend the lockdown by 10 days and keep it up to May 25."
Additional chief secretary (home) Chaitanya Prasad said, "Against the existing time slot of 7 am to 11 am for essential shops, it will now open from 6 am to 10 am in urban areas and 8 am to 12noon in rural areas."
He added that shops dealing in construction raw material, hardware and seeds and fertilisers will be allowed to open from 6 am to 10 am on Monday and Thursday.
The daily caseload of Covid in Bihar has come down from over 15,000 to less than 10,000 in the past 10 days. The active cases of Covid-19 patients also dropped below 1lakh after 22 days on Wednesday.
"The Covid positivity rate in Bihar came down from 15.7% on May 2 to 8.9% on May 11. It was definitely due to the impact of the lockdown," Pratyaya Amrit, additional chief secretary (health) said.