BHUBANESWAR: Amid blatant violations of Covid-19 safety norms and rising infection count, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Friday sealed a commercial establishment and issued fresh restrictions for social gatherings to be enforced from April 6.
Enforcement unit of the civic body raided the Unit II Market Building complex and sealed Vishal Mega Mart for not adhering to the Covid safety protocols. It also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Queens Collection and Rs 5,000 each on Bazaar Kolkata and City Fashion for violating the guidelines. Another shopping outlet was asked to pay Rs 2,000 fine.
The Corporation also capped the maximum number of persons to be allowed in a wedding to 100. Similarly, only 50 persons can attend death rituals and funerals. Also, any kind of promotional activities, centenary and golden jubilee or silver jubilee celebration of institutions and annual functions of educational institutions have been banned till further orders.
For other social gatherings, the organisers will have to seek permission for the civic body but the maximum number of participants will not exceed 100, said Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary. The Capital on Friday reported 45 new cases pushing the active case tally to 343. Four new cases were reported from a private school in Patia, while eight cases were reported from Jayadev Vihar.
In view of the fresh surge, the civic body has also decided to intensify the vaccination drive. “We have set a target of vaccinating around 7,000 to 10,000 people a day,” the Commissioner said. BMC has also identified around 20,000 people of different categories, especially street vendors, meat and fish sellers, school and college teachers, saloon and barber shop employees, security guards, restaurant staff, employees of water supply and transport services and staff of religious institutes who will be vaccinated on priority in the coming days.