Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday prohibits all types of celebrations, except marriage from December 25 to January 2 to examine the possibility of the spread of omicrons during the Christmas season until the new year.
Although there was no celebration other than marriage was permitted, there could not be receptions and other additional events to reduce marriage only for rituals.
The government prevents community parties during that period.
People can do funeral rituals by following the Covid protocol, commands issued by the Pradeep Kumar Jena Special Pradeep Commissioner.
The order said Christmas would be limited to churches with a maximum meeting of 50 people who joined the masses.
The government has announced prohibiting zero night celebrations, parties in hotels, clubs and restaurants, parks and convention rooms to welcome the new year on December 31 or January 1.
The government said there would be strict vigilance to prevent the crowd.
“There are no social meetings, demonstrations, orchestras, dances and other cultural programs will be permitted,” said government command.
The government has requested regency and city administration to apply additional sidewalks to keep in mind local needs.
Taking instructions from the government’s order, the Jharsuguda district closed the picnic point during the period.
Trust Temple of Maa Tarini in Keonjhar District decided to cover famous temples on December 25, 26, 31, January 1 and 2 to avoid the crowd.
Justifying new sidewalks, the government’s order said in a few days, the new Covid variant of B.1,529 (Omicron) has collected state concerns because it has been detected in Odisha.
The country has so far reported four people infected by new variants.
Samples from three newer foreign returns, which have been positively tested for Covid-19, waiting for the sequencing genome at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS).
On Friday, a total of 141 people were tested positive for Covid-19 in Odisha.
The country now has 1751 positive active cases.
Of those only 129 were in the hospital while others were in house isolation, said government updates.
Two more people, a woman (84) from Balalasore and a man (58) from Ganjam surrendered to viral infections, raising the death toll of Covid the country to 8450.