Haryana Government on Sunday issued fresh guidelines putting a ceiling on the number of people permitted at functions in open spaces and indoors, and at funerals in the wake of a surge in Covid-19 cases in the state.
The state on Sunday reported seven deaths and 1904 fresh Covid-19 cases.
“With a view to containing the spread of Coronavirus in the state, Haryana Government has restricted the number of persons at indoor and outdoor social gatherings. At indoor functions, a maximum of 50 per cent of the hall capacity will be allowed with a ceiling of 200 persons. At functions being held in open spaces, gatherings will be allowed with the ceiling of 500 persons. For funerals up to 50 persons will be allowed,” said Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Sanjeev Kaushal.
He said the capacity of indoor places would be specified by the Urban Local Bodies or Department concerned keeping in view calculated correlation between the number of chairs, seating or standing capacity and the covered area in sq. yards or sq. feet.
This has been done under the revised standard operating procedure for the social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious political functions and other congregations.
All functions will be allowed with strict adherence to the appropriate COVID-19 behavior such as social distancing norms, wearing of face masks, sanitization, hand hygiene and provision for thermal scanning, etc, he added.
Kaushal further said that organisers of social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious, political functions and other congregations shall take prior permission from the district magistrates. The DMs will issue permission after seeking necessary NOCs from the concerned departments, including the police.
The Deputy Commissioners shall constitute joint inspection teams for enforcing these instructions and should ensure extensive checking and take action against the violators as per law, rules, instructions and directions issued from time to time by the State Government, he said.
These directions shall be enforced by the Deputy Commissioners in their respective districts, and any violations shall be punishable under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 as well as under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, as per national directives, Kaushal added.
Haryana reports another major spike in COVID cases
As many as 1904 fresh COVID-19 cases surfaced in Haryana on Sunday while seven more people succumbed to the virus.
“There were 12574 active cases in the state till the evening. The death toll stood at 3191 while the total infections have reached 298133 in the state. In the last 24 hours, three deaths were reported in Kaithal while one death each was reported in Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Ambala and Sonepat,” according to the Haryana Health Department’s evening bulletin.
Out of 1904 fresh cases reported, a maximum of 555 positive cases were reported in Gurugram.
Among 197 critical COVID-19 patients in the state, 166 were on oxygen support while 31 were on ventilators.
The fatality rate was recorded at 1.07 percent in Haryana. The COVID positive rate was 4.7o per cent and recovery rate was recorded at 94.71 percent.
Till date, 282368 patients (including 1110 in the last 24 hours) have recovered and been discharged from
hospitals in the state, the bulletin stated.
Over 63.71 lakh samples have been tested till date in Haryana, it added.