The Bihar Government on Wednesday has extended the ongoing lockdown for 16 more days from August 1 till mid-August as coronavirus cases continue to spike in the state.
The COVID-19 tally in Bihar has surged to 45,919. The number of recovered patients stands at 29,220.
Here’s the complete list of what is allowed and not allowed during the lockdown:
What’s allowed?
- Shops, banks, ATMs will function normally
- 50% of staff strength in both Centre and state government offices. Officers will have to come to the office.
- Sports complexes will be allowed to open. But no spectators will be allowed.
- Air travel and train travel will function as mandated by the railways and the DGCA.
- Other emergency services, electricity, water, municipality, hospitals, will function.
- All essential service providers will be allowed to commute from home to the workplace.
- Industrial establishments with strict implementation of necessary precautions against Covid-19 as well as social distancing measures.
What’s not allowed?
- All educational, training, research, and coaching institution.
- All social/political/sports/entertainment/academic/cultural functions/ gatherings, parks.
- All places of worship, no religious congregation permitted.
- DMs will not have the power to dilute the restrictions. But they can impose some other restrictions as deemed necessary.
The Bihar government has appointed IAS Pratyay Amrit as the new principal secretary (health), replacing Uday Singh Kumawat. This is the third such placement within two and a half months and shows that all is not well in the health department. On May 20, Kumawat had replaced the then principal secretary Sanjay Kumar in the health department.
Earlier this month, a central team had visited Bihar to review the COVID-19 situation in the state amid complaints of inadequate facilities and negligence at state-run hospitals. The three-member team led by Joint Secretary in Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry Lav Agarwal were sent to the state after allegations of poor handling of the coronavirus situation by the Nitish Kumar-led government.
The Central team members reinforced the concept of aggressive daily testing while citing that Bihar has been lagging in optimal utilisation of its test potential.
