Amidst the Covid surge, the government has decided to impose the lockdown for a week and examine the results.
Key highlights:
- The authorities issued new guidelines due to the recent covid-19 surge.
- The decision came on Sunday, imposing the lockdown.
The BJP-JJP allied government, led by Manohar Lal Khattar, announced the imposition of the lockdown for a week on Sunday. Before, on Friday, the government also imposed the lockdown in nine districts — Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula, Sonipat, Rohtak, Karnal, Hisar, Sirsa, and Fatehabad — from 10 pm on Friday till 5 am on Monday.
On Sunday, Haryana reported 13322 new cases and 145 deaths. Of these numbers, most of them are coming from the NCR regions.
Haryana on Saturday registered its most significant single-day jump of 125 deaths due to Covid-19, raising the toll to 4,341, while 13,588 new cases pushed the infection count to 5,01,566. The number of active instances crossed the one-lakh mark for the first time on Saturday. The state now has 1,02,516 active Covid-19 cases, and the hardest-hit Gurugram and Faridabad account for 50 percent of them.
Even in this situation, politics is not stopping. Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda asked the government to step up efforts to tackle the problem. He had said that the complete focus of the government should be on protecting the people of Haryana from the pandemic. Senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala had hit out at the BJP-JJP.
Here’s what is allowed and what is not during this lockdown period:
- Vaccination centers, banks, and essential services remain open.
- All health services, including health centers, nursing homes, clinics to remain functional during the lockdown.
- Pharmaceutical centers and Jain Aushadhi Kendras remain open.
- All medical equipment shops will also remain functional.
- ATMs, vendors for banking operations will remain open. Bank branches will remain open only according to working hours.
- All goods traffic will ply.
- Kirana shops and shops selling essential goods will remain open. Ration shops under PDS, those dealing with food and groceries for daily use, hygiene items, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, poultry, meat, fish, animal feed, and fodder, are allowed to operate, ensuring strict social distancing.
- In the case of funerals, no more than 20 people are allowed.
- Print and electronic media, including DTH and cable services, are allowed. Also, IT and IT-enabled services, with up to 50 percent strength, data, and call centers for government activities only would be allowed to operate.
- Hotels, eateries and food joints will be opened till 10 pm But it is essential to note that the food must be home-delivered. Street foods will only be allowed for the takeaways.
- No activities are other than essential services home delivery will be permitted in the containment zone.
- Offices of the Union Government, its autonomous and subordinate offices will remain open and operate accordingly.
- State government offices, its autonomous bodies, corporations that will be allowed to operate without restrictions include police, home guards, civil defense, fire and emergency services, disaster management, prisons, electricity, water, and sanitation.
- All other offices of the state government departments shall strictly follow the directions issued by the chief secretary’s office.