Amid Omicron variant threat, Himachal Pradesh government on Sunday imposed more restrictions wherein it has announced that all government offices to remain closed on weekends besides all social or religious gatherings have been banned in the state. The restrictions will come into effect from 6 am of January 10 till 6 am of January 24.
Here's a look at the detailed order issued by the government of Himachal Pradesh:
All the offices of Government Departments/ PSUs/ local bodies/ Autonomous Bodies including the H.P. Secretariat will remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays (5 working days a week) and these offices will operate with the 50% attendance in working days. These restrictions will not be on offices dealing with emergency or essential services such as health, police, fire, banks, electricity, water & sanitation, public transport, telecom, Excise, Budget and related. incident services/activities etc. HODs/Controlling officers shall issue roster order accordingly. However, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh will issue separate orders with respect to the Hon'ble High Court and all other judicial offices.
All social and religious gatherings shall be completely banned in the state Other gatherings/congregations like academic/sports/entertainment/ cultural/ political are permitted up to 50% of the capacity, subject to maximum of 100 persons in indoor built up/covered areas (whichever is lower) and in open spaces/outdoor areas permitted up to 50% of the capacity, subject to 300 persons (whichever is lower). Prior intimation of gatherings shall be given to the District/Sub Divisional Administration and local administration can impose additional conditions upon the organizers, as deemed fit, in context of local COVID situation. There shall be strict observance of COVID-19 appropriate behavior and safety protocols during these congregations/gatherings.
Along with Religious Places/ Places of worship there will be total ban on Langar/community/ kitchens/dhaams in all places in the state.
For fixing the timings of the shops/markets or staggering schedule of their openings/closing, respective District Magistrates (DMs) are authorized to take decision on this behalf after taking note of COVID-19 situations and specific requirements of their districts.
The DMs shall be competent to deploy any government employee who are otherwise not performing any duties or not coming to their offices because of the directions by any authority, and depute them for any duty relating to vaccination, surveillance, monitoring of persons under home isolation, manning the check posts, making data entry or monitoring, calling home isolated patients, etc. as per requirements to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh on Saturday recorded 728 fresh COVID-19 cases, its biggest single-day jump in infections in the last several months, pushing the state's virus tally to 2,31,587, a health official said.
The death toll from the pandemic remained unchanged at 3,864 as no new fatality linked to the disease was reported on Saturday.
