Jharkhand schools to resume classes for students of 6-8, colleges to re-open. Details here

All colleges will re-open and they will function just like earlier, state Health Minister Banna Gupta has said.

The state government has also allowed entry of visitors to religious places, including the famous Baidyanath Dham temple in Deoghar and allowed setting up of Durga puja pandals subject to compliance of Covid-19 protocol.

Bars and restaurants were allowed to open till 11 pm, as per the decision taken at a meeting of Jharkhand State Disaster Management Authority under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

“Permission has been given for the entry of devotees at all religious places. It will be mandatory for concerned persons (priest, panda, imam, pastor etc) at the religious places to have taken at least one dose of vaccination,” Soren said in a tweet after the meeting. He said in an hour a maximum of 100 people will be able to enter using e-passes religious places identified by the district magistrate like the Baba Dham Temple in Deoghar .

People have been allowed to gather at religous places, provided the gathering is not more than 50 per cent of the capacity of the place. Entry of those below 18 years of age will be prohibited.

Covid protocol like social distancing and wearing of masks have been made mandatory.

“Permission has been given for construction of Durga Puja pandals but there will be ban on entry of devotees in them. There will be a ban on the gathering of more than 50 per cent of the capacity or more than 25 persons (whichever is less) at a time in the pandal. There will be a ban on organising fairs and the maximum height of the idol will be 5 feet, while there will be no archway or reception gate,” Soren said in another tweet. A statement from the chief minister’s secretariat said that pandals will not be allowed to be based on any theme and will be covered from three sides. Also ‘bhog’ (prasad) will not be distributed.

Besides, puja organising committees will not give invitation cards and use of bright lighting in the pandal will be restricted, it said.

The statement said all cultural programmes like garba and dandiya performances will be banned. There will be no food stalls and no immersion procession after the Puja.

“Immersion will be done at the place identified by the district administration,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand reported six fresh COVID-19 infections and zero death in the last 24 hours, as per the state health department on Monday.

Ranchi added five fresh cases, followed by East Singhbhum with one case.

Following this, the total cases jumped to nearly 3.5 lakh (3,48,079) including 117 active cases.

The death toll stood at 5,133 with a mortality rate of 1.47 per cent.

Also, the total recoveries reached 3,42,829 wherein 16 recoveries were logged in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate is at 98.49 per cent.