Celebrate Eid-ul-Adha at home, say Covid guidelines in Assam

As per the new guidelines, which will become applicable from 5am on Tuesday, five of Assam’s 33 districts -- Golaghat, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Biswanath -- will continue to be under a total lockdown

The Assam government has asked people to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha festival, which falls this Wednesday, at home this year.

Beneficiaries wait in a queue to receive for Covid-19 vaccine dose, at a centrein Guwahati earlier this month. (PTI)

“All persons to celebrate Eid from their homes. Religious rituals e.g; Namaaz at mosque is allowed with not more than five persons including the religious head,” said the new Covid-19 guidelines issued by Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua on Monday.

As per the new guidelines, which will become applicable from 5am on Tuesday, five of Assam’s 33 districts -- Golaghat, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Biswanath -- will continue to be under a total lockdown. Restrictions have been eased in Goalpara and Morigaon districts which will now have a daily curfew from 1pm to 5pm.

All other districts in the state will continue to have 12-hour daily curfew from 5pm to 5am. All shops, business establishments, offices etc. will have to close one hour ahead of the curfew timings.

“The situation of Covid-19 in the state has been comprehensively reviewed and [it was] observed that, though few districts have shown improvement in the positivity rate, the number of active cases and positivity rate is still high in some districts,” the order read.

Government employees who have taken at least one dose of Covid vaccine will have to attend office except in containment zones. Employees who have not taken vaccine will have to attend office as and when their services are required.

Organisations and employees providing emergency services will continue to operate without restrictions. Pregnant women employees and or women who have children below 5 years of age will be allowed to work from home. Persons with disabilities shall be exempted from attending duties.

Odd-even formula for private vehicles will continue in urban areas and the ban on inter-district movement will also remain. There would be a ban on public and private transport in districts under total lockdown. In other districts, they will be allowed to operate while following Covid appropriate behaviour.

All religious places will continue to remain closed for devotees. In districts not under total lockdown, the number of attendees of marriages and funerals has been capped at 10.

On Sunday, Assam recorded 1,329 new cases and 15 deaths. The test positivity rate, which refers to the proportion of tests returning positive to the total number of tests conducted for a particular infection, stood at 1.86%. The state has over 16,000 active cases at present.