BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Friday restricted gatherings to celebrate the New Year at offices on Saturday in view of the rise in new Covid cases in the State.
The General Administration and Public Grievance department has directed all government employees to scrupulously avoid group movements, congregations and greetings with flower bouquets in offices on January 1.
The government employees have been advised to use virtual mediums for conveying their New Year greetings to colleagues and seniors, and maintain social distancing.
A day after releasing the Covid-19 guidelines for January, the State government has modified the night curfew restrictions in all urban areas by exempting several essential activities.
In a revised notification, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) clarified night curfew restrictions from 10 pm to 5 am will not be applicable to officials on duty, healthcare and emergency workers of utilities, including electricity, fire services, telecom, water supply, railways, port and airport.
Movement of ambulances, public transport, private vehicles and taxis (including cabs by aggregators like Ola and Uber) to and from airports, railway stations and bus terminals/stops for facilitating the movement of passengers by air, rail and road will be allowed.
The staff of IT and ITeS companies will be allowed to move during the restricted hours on production of their ID cards apart from any person, in case of medical or another emergency, owner/staff of chemist shops, all industrial units, construction activities, early warning agencies and disaster management establishments.
Operation of hotels and hospitality units, including their associated offices, movement of staff and associated personnel, dhabas along highways for takeaway only, petrol pumps and CNG stations, LPG distribution, home delivery of food and other essential items by restaurants and aggregators personnel and vehicular movement have been allowed.
However, there will be no restrictions on the movement of persons/vehicles for testing and vaccination and home delivery of food items. All commercial establishments, including essential items, food and vegetable shops, but excluding medicine, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and optical shops will remain closed.