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Uttarakhand shops in 9 hill districts with no Covid-19 cases to reopen from Sunday
Uttarakhand has less than 50 positive cases of coronavirus and they are all in four districts
Uttarakhand government has allowed most shops selling goods to open in nine of the total 13 districts from Sunday. The permission doesn’t apply to liquor shops and other commercial establishments offering services like salons and beauty parlours. The decision was taken after a meeting of officials chaired by chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
A state government official privy to the development said on condition of anonymity, “During the meeting, it was decided that the nine districts in the hilly areas of the state which have so far seen no cases of COVID-19 will have their shops opened from Sunday as per the guidelines issued by the Centre. They will open from 7 am to 6 pm in the evening while maintaining necessary precautions like social distancing.”
The official added, “However liquor shops and hair-cutting salons will remain shut. In the four major districts of the state including Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and US Nagar which have witnessed COVID-19 cases, there will not be any relaxations. Only shops of essential items will open there as per the status quo, from 7 am to 1 pm.”
The official, however, said that the district magistrates of the four aforementioned districts can take a necessary decision on any relaxation in certain areas after evaluation of the situation.
Earlier on Saturday, CM Rawat had announced the reopening of the non-Covid hospitals in the nine hill districts from Sunday to treat people suffering from other diseases.
“The hospitals there would treat the patients suffering from various ailments like they used to do before the lockdown. As the season of diarrhoea and dengue is also near, these hospitals will be needed to treat these diseases in coming days,” he said.
The CM also said that “The four hospitals which will continue to treat the COVID-19 patients in the state will be Government Doon Hospital in Dehradun, Dr Susheel Tiwari Government Hospital in Haldwani, Government Medical College in Rudrapur and Mela Hospital in Haridwar.”
Uttarakhand has a total of 48 coronavirus patients till Saturday, 26 of them have recovered.
