No lockdown for now, Bihar to contain Covid-19 spread through night curfew

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the government has also taken a decision to develop containment zones like last year to contain the spread of pandemic and increase number of beds in dedicated Covid hospitals and care centres and give a boost to awareness campaigns to make people aware of the need to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour.

Bihar will not go in for lockdown but will impose night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am and close all government and private educational institutions and postpone exams till May 15, to break the chain of transmission of the Covid-19 pandemic. The state has witnessed an unprecedented spurt in the last one month with the addition of 8690 new cases in the last 24 hours. This has taken the tally of active cases closer to 50,000 in Bihar.

Announcing the move after marathon meetings with district magistrates and later with the crisis management group during the day, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) will be imposed as per requirement in town areas and block level during the day to prohibit crowding. (HT PHOTO.)

Announcing the move after marathon meetings with district magistrates and later with the crisis management group during the day, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) will be imposed as per requirement in town areas and block level during the day to prohibit assemblies of four or more individuals and avoid any crowding.

“The district magistrates will ensure that vegetable mandis and roadside vending are staggered and not crowded. All public places like malls, cinema halls, gyms and parks as well as religious places will remain closed and restaurants and dhabas will only provide home delivery or takeaway facility. There will be a cap of 100 people for marriage and ‘shradh’ events. The government and private offices, already running with one-third attendance, will close by 5 pm, while the shops will close by 6 pm. Earlier, it was 7 pm. However, it will not apply to essential services,” he added.

The announcement was very much on expected lines after Saturday’s all-party meeting, which was not unanimous on complete state-wide lockdown due to likely hardships faced by the common masses in a poor state like Bihar and the issue of large number of migrants.

The CM, however, appealed to all the people living outside the state to return as early as possible, as delay will cause problems for them, hinting that the government might review the situation in the days to come to decide on sterner measures.

“The government will make all arrangements. Those in home isolation will be monitored on a daily basis, while those returning will be provided with quarantine facilities like last year at the sub-divisional level. A lot of deliberations have been done on every aspect,” the CM said, adding that it had been decided to wait for some time before deciding on the possibility of lockdown.

Kumar said that the government has also taken a decision to develop containment zones like last year to contain the spread of pandemic and increase number of beds in dedicated Covid hospitals and care centres and give a boost to awareness campaigns to make people aware of the need to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour for their own safety as well as that of their near and dear ones.

The CM said that during the meeting, all the aspects were discussed, viz. reports of oxygen shortage, medicine requirement, especially Remdesivir, and delay in RT-PCR reports. “The emphasis will be on fast tracking testing and vaccination. Early start of treatment is important and for that timely availability of RT-PCR reports will be ensured,” he added.

The CM said that like last year, the panchayati raj department will start supply of masks in the rural and urban areas in larger numbers. “Like last year, the government has also decided to give one-month additional salary to doctors and health workers in view of the enormous work they are doing to meet the huge pandemic challenge,” he added.

Health minister Mangal Pandey said that the government was ensuring smooth supply of oxygen and Remdesivir injection as also other medicines. “We are in touch with the suppliers and smooth supply will be ensured,” he added.

After getting detailed feedback from all the political parties on the prevailing Covid-19 situation in Bihar at a meeting called by Governor Phagu Chauhan on Saturday, the CM had said that the government would announce further measures to contain the spread of the virus on Sunday after seeking reports from all the district magistrates.