RANCHI: The state disaster management authority (SDMA) on Wednesday extended the ongoing Swasthya Suraksha Saptah (Health Safety Week) till the morning of July 1.
Contrary to the expectations, the SDMA headed by chief minister Hemant Soren did not allow any further relaxations over and above the existing ones.
“We are still passing through the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and there are apprehensions about an impending third wave.
We will evaluate the situation again in some time and decide accordingly (on further easing of the curbs),” Soren told journalists at Jharkhand Mantralaya.
Notably, the health safety week, which was imposed on April 22, was extended for the fifth time till June 24.
However, the government had eased curbs a bit and allowed all business establishments to remain open till 4pm in between Mondays and Saturdays.
“The provisions of the order number 207 dated June 16, 2021 related to the observance of Swasthya Suraksha Saptah shall stand extended from 6am of June 24 to 6am of July 1, 2021,” an order signed by chief secretary Sukhdev Singh read.
Extensions of the ongoing provisions will mean that inter-state and inter-district bus transport will remain grounded while the state will continue to remain under complete lockdown from Saturday evenings to Monday mornings.
Religious places shall remain out of bounds for devotees while social, cultural and political gatherings will remain restricted.
Assembly of more than five persons will also be deemed violation of the disaster management Act Of 2005.
Commercial establishments shall remain open for business till 4pm while private and government offices will operate with curtailed workforce.
Dining at hotels, restaurants and eateries will remain prohibited but takeaways will be allowed.
Parks, gymnasiums and swimming pools will continue to remain closed.
The members of Ranchi Bus Owners’ Association were a dejected lot on Wednesday.
“Over 1,000 buses, which ply between the district headquarters and neighbouring states, are grounded for over two months now.
We are incurring huge losses.
The government should have at least allowed us to operate inter-district with 50% sitting capacity,” a functionary of the association said.
Notably, Jharkhand had imposed the lockdown when the state’s weekly positivity rate stood at over 16%.
As on June 20, the state’s positivity rate had dropped to 0.3%.