The Odisha government on Friday announced that New Year and Christmas celebrations will be restricted because of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has infected two people in the state till now. The new restrictions will be in effect from Saturday till January 2.
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“With a view to protecting the health of the public and preventing the spread of new variant of Covid-19, the government of Odisha in the exercise of powers conferred under section-2 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897; Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Odisha Covid-19 Regulation, 2020 impose the following restrictions…”
The new restrictions are as follows
> The Odisha government said that Christmas celebrations will be limited to churches with a maximum of 50 people joining the mass by strictly following Covid-19 protocols and specific conditions imposed by district magistrates/local authorities/municipal commissioners while permitting such mass.
> No celebrations apart from marriages are allowed across Odisha. However, receptions and ancillary functions are not permitted, the order said.
{{/usCountry}}> No celebrations apart from marriages are allowed across Odisha. However, receptions and ancillary functions are not permitted, the order said.
{{/usCountry}}> ”Zero night celebration, Welcome to New Year in hotels, clubs, restaurants, parks, convention halls, Kalyan Mandaps, etc. is completely banned across the state,” the order added.
> Funeral rites are permitted in view of Covid-19 protocols.
> There shall be strict vigilance on crowding and gathering during the above occasions.
> The state government also said that no community feast is permitted and there is a ban on social gatherings, rallies, orchestras, dances and other cultural programmes.
Odisha has so far reported 1,053,645 cases, 8,450 deaths, 1,043,391 recoveries and 1,751 active cases due to the coronavirus disease. On Friday, the state reported a low of 141 cases while two more patients died and 172 recuperated from Covid-19.
The state reported its first two cases of the Omicron variant on Tuesday. The patients had travel history to Nigeria and Qatar respectively. Both of them are asymptomatic.