The Odisha government on Monday eased certain Covid-19 restrictions in view of a dip in daily infections.
As per the new guidelines, the night curfew will now stay in place between 10 pm and 5 am in urban areas, instead of the earlier 9 pm and 5 am.
Emergency services and home delivery by restaurants and online aggregators will continue during the night curfew.
Shops, malls, shopping complexes, markets, haats, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment complexes, theatres, auditoriums, assembly halls and other similar places will be allowed to operate from 5 am to 10 pm till 28 February.
In addition to this, the government has also allowed Saraswati Puja in schools with a limited number of students, in compliance with all Covid-19 protocols. The festival can also be observed in temples without the participation of devotees.
No community Saraswati Pujas will be allowed, and large congregations at river banks, ghats, ponds and beaches for bathing on Magha Saptami will not be permitted, it added.
All offices of the state government, public undertakings, corporations, societies and autonomous bodies will function with full staff strength, strictly adhering to Covid-19 protocol.
Online meetings and training shall be encouraged, the notification said.
Covid situation in state
The relaxations come as Odisha reported 18 more Covid-19 fatalities on Monday, one less than the previous day, with the toll rising to 8,612.
At least 3,329 fresh infections raised the tally to 12,49,240, a health department bulletin said. At least 504 children were among those newly infected.
The daily caseload plunged by 545 from 7,291 a week ago. The state had logged 4,843 new Covid-19 cases and 19 deaths on Sunday.
Khurda district, which comprises the state capital Bhubaneswar, recorded 646 new cases, followed by 293 in Cuttack.
The test positivity rate stood at 5.87% as the fresh infections were detected from 56,708 sample tests conducted in the past 24 hours, the bulletin said.
Odisha now has 47,210 active cases, including 14,332 in Khurda, which is in the red zone along with Sundargarh and Cuttack. A district with over 2,500 active infections falls in the red category.
Balasore, Nuapada and Jajpur are among the seven districts that are in the yellow zone with each having more than 1,000 cases. At least 9,191 patients recuperated from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 11,93,365.
