Bihar Allows Home Delivery, Construction Work During 16-day Lockdown; Colleges, Religious Spaces To Remain Shut

As coronavirus cases in Bihar continue to rise unabated, the state government has announced a complete lockdown starting July 16 till July 31. The decision was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi saying that the Nitish Kumar-led government had ordered that all city municipalities, district headquarters, block headquarters will stay under lockdown.

Amid low testing rate, Bihar recorded over 1,000 cases for the past four days. Cases here are nearing the 20,000-mark with 1,432 new cases reported on Tuesday. Health experts are worried as Bihar could become the next corona hotspot in the country, India Today reported.

While many states have announced partial lockdowns in high-risk cities and containment zones, Bihar is the only state that ordered a complete lockdown due to unprecedented surge in cases.

Here are the activities which will remain unaffected during the lockdown:

• Hospitals and all related medical establishments will remain functional

• Construction work, home delivery of products will be permitted and encouraged to minimise the movement of people outside

• Banks will be functional

• Air and rail transport services will insurance offices, and ATMl be operational

• Taxis, auto-rickshaws and private vehicles will be allowed only for permitted activities

• Private vehicles will be allowed across the state for permitted activities only

• Petrol pumps, LPG petroleum and gas retail and storage outlets will be allowed to operate

• Public utilities, power generation and transmission units, post offices will be functioning

• Essential service providers will be permitted to commute only from home to workplace

• Government and private vehicles carrying government staff will be allowed to commute with their office identity cards

• Restaurants will be allowed to function only for providing home delivery options

Defence, central armed police forces, treasury, public utilities, disaster management, power generation and transmission units, post offices. National Informatics Centre will be operating

Activities which won’t be permitted

• Schools, colleges, and other educational institutions will remain shut

• Sports, cultural complexes, malls, religious places, movie theatres, swimming pools, and gymnasiums will remain shut.

• Commercial, private and government establishments will remain closed

• Offices of the Government of India, its Autonomous Subordinate Offices and Public Corporation will also be not functioning.

However, all the rules will not be applicable to containment zones in the state, which will continue to be under strict central government guidelines, NDTV reported.