The state government has extended the period of night curfew by three hours, from 6pm to 6am, and ordered closure of shops and business establishments at 4pm, instead of 6pm from Thursday till May 15. Earlier, the night curfew was from 9pm to 5am.

However, vegetable and fruit vendors are allowed to sell their items on the carts by moving around and restaurants can deliver the cooked food at customers’ homes till 9pm.

The decisions were taken after a marathon meeting CM Nitish Kumar held with the crisis management group of the state on taking further measures to contain the surge of coronavirus cases. The state recorded 13,374 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours.

Later, development commissioner Amir Subhani and principal secretary (health & disaster management) Pratyaya Amrit briefed the media about the decisions taken at the meeting.

As per the home department’s notification, the number of guests has been reduced from 100 to 50 for marriage functions and from 25 to 20 at funerals. “However, the night curfew will be effective from 10pm in case of the wedding function. But the use of DJ will be banned in the wedding events,” the notification reads.

“The district administration can stagger the markets to check crowds at such places. The administration can issue orders to open markets on alternate days, either region or mohalla wise. If required, the administration can put a ban on opening of mandi(s) located in highly populated areas or can shift them to other open places,” the notification says.
“All government and private offices (except the offices related to the essential works) will function only with 25% attendance till 4pm daily. All employees will be encouraged to work from home. All government and private offices will be closed by 4pm,” the order reads.

Subhani said the state government would meet the expenses for the performance of last rites of Covid-19 victims and also of those testing negative but having symptoms of the deadly virus. “For this, the urban development and housing department and the rural development department will authorize the urban local bodies and the block development officers, respectively, and allot necessary funds to them,” Subhani said.

It was also decided to make ready all necessary medical infrastructures, including beds, piped oxygen, ventilators and oxygen concentrator machines, considering that the state has over 98,000 active Covid cases.

“To meet the requirements of the active Covid patients, it was also decided to hold walk-in interviews to appoint necessary number of doctors, nurses, lab technicians and paramedical staff for a period of one year after creating temporary posts,” Subhani said.

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