Ranchi, June 15: Jharkhand government on Tuesday extended the lockdown-like restrictions, observed as ‘Health Safety Week’ till June 24 morning by allowing all shops including shopping malls and departmental stores to be opened across state including till 4 pm.
However, despite the slew of fresh relaxations announced on Tuesday, the total lockdown on weeken across the state during the coming weekend from 4am, Saturday, June 19 to 6am, Monday, June 21 would continue to be enforced..
Under the new rules, malls and departmental stores will be allowed to reopen and private & public offices can function with 50 per cent attendance. All other existing curbs, announced earlier, will continue to be in force, according to a statement issued by the government.
These decisions were announced after a meeting of the state disaster management authority under the aegis of chief minister Hemant Soren in the afternoon.
State disaster management secretary, Amitabh Kaushal said that there will be no restriction on opening of factories, companies and on movement of persons related to activities allowed in the order. Only the shops will be closed during the weekend lockdown.
Significantly, this is the sixth time that the restrictions, first imposed on April 22 have been extended. The earlier lockdown was till June 16.
“All shops including malls and departmental stores selling multiple categories of products will be permitted to be open till 4 pm in all districts, including East Singhbhum. However, there will be a complete lockdown between 4 pm on Saturday and 6 am on Monday and all shops will be closed except medicine, clinics, hospitals, restaurants (home delivery) and cold storages,” the communique said.
Earlier in the order issued on June 9, Jamshedpur in East Singhbhum was singled out with prohibition on opening of jewellery, clothes and garments shops during the order issued last week as it witnessed a high number of Covid cases.
However, assembly halls, parks, banquet halls, clubs, gymnasiums, swimming pools and stadiums will continue to remain closed. All educational centres and coaching institutions would continue to remain shut.
The prohibition on devotees attending religious places and procession will continue. E-pass will be required for moving from one district to another using personal vehicle and also for moving to other states or coming from other states to Jharkhand.
Bus services will continue to remain closed. Gathering of more than five persons at public places is banned, and driving within districts in private vehicles will require e-passes. All incoming travelers to the state will need to be in seven-day home quarantine except in certain cases.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand recorded only one Covid-19 fatality in a span of 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 5,085, a health department bulletin said on Tuesday. The lone coronavirus death was reported from East Singhbhum district.
The recovery rate of the state improved to 97.62%, better than the national average of 95.40%. However the mortality rate was at 1.47 per cent tad higher than the national average of 1.20 per cent.
