Wary of second Covid-19 wave, Odisha capital bans marriage processions

The guidelines released by BMC said children below 10 years, old people, pregnant women and people with co-morbidities should not attend marriage functions while people with severe acute respiratory illness would not be allowed to such functions.

With the possibility of a second Covid-19 wave looming large in Odisha due to onset of winter, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Tuesday banned marriage processions in the Odisha capital and limited attendance in marriage functions to 100 and funerals to 50.

The new guidelines came on the day; Odisha reported 987 cases, the first time in more than 3 months when the daily Covid-19 cases in the state dropped below 1,000. (ANI PHOTO.)

The guidelines released by BMC said children below 10 years, old people, pregnant women and people with co-morbidities should not attend marriage functions while people with severe acute respiratory illness would not be allowed to such functions.

The new guidelines came on the day; Odisha reported 987 cases, the first time in more than 3 months when the daily Covid-19 cases in the state dropped below 1,000. On July 20, Odisha had last reported less than 1,000 cases. Odisha has now 3.03 lakh Covid-19 cases of which 1507 have succumbed to the virus.

The state government has already banned burning of firecrackers till November-end and extended closure of schools till end of December.

However, the daily positivity rate has now dropped below 3 per cent even as more than 43,000 tests are being done daily. The government is now planning to go for population-based testing strategy to curb the spread of the virus more effectively.