MP to unlock Janata curfew from June 1, ban on marriages and businesses to go

Marriages will also be allowed but with the presence of not more than 20 people including bride and bridegroom and members in the marriage party will have to necessarily get their Rapid Antigen Tests done, Mishra added.

MP government has decided to relax the Janata curfew in districts with less than 5% test positivity rate for Covid-19 infections and resume business activities from June 1, said state home minister Narottam Mishra. He made the announcement after a meeting of a group of cabinet ministers on Thursday.

Janata curfew was imposed in April when the test positivity rate for Covid 19 rose to 23% in the state, indicating every fifth person to be tested was turning positive for the disease.

“The construction work and other business activities will resume from June 1. The government offices will be opened with 50% staff while registrar office, agriculture Mandis and farmers’ welfare department offices will be run with 100% staff,” Mishra said. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday announced easing of restrictions beginning June 1 following a marked improvement in the state’s Covid situation.

Marriages will also be allowed but with the presence of not more than 20 people including bride and bridegroom and members in the marriage party will have to necessarily get their Rapid Antigen Tests done, Mishra added.

Places of worship will be reopened for people but not more than two people will be allowed to enter the premises at a given time. However, the ban on larger social, religious, culture and political functions will continue. The crisis management committee will take a decision on lifting the ban, said the minister.

The state government imposed Janata curfew in April when the test positivity rate for Covid 19 rose to 23%, indicating every fifth person to be tested was turning positive for the disease amid the second wave of the disease. After two months of restrictions, the test positivity rate has decreased to 3.1%. A TPR of less than 5% is considered manageable by the World Health Organisation.

On Wednesday, 2182 positive cases and 72 Covid deaths were reported from MP. Now, the state has 43,265 active cases of the disease. With 70,195 new tests, the total number of samples tested for coronavirus have crossed 95.24 lakh. In May so far, Madhya Pradesh recorded 208,551 cases including 2,142 fatalities, as per the health department data. MP CM had said on Tuesday that the state will continue to test 75,000-80,000 samples every day in order to ensure that the disease doesn’t spread undetected.