Lockdown in Bihar will be lifted in a staggered manner from Wednesday.

The state, clamped over a month ago in view of the spurt in Covid-19 cases, will enforce night curfew from 7pm to 5am and provide relaxations to shops and offices during the daytime.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar made the announcement on his social media handles on Tuesday after a meeting of the crisis management group, which reviewed the pandemic situation in the state.

“Lockdown has led to a decline in corona infection hence we are ending the lockdown. Night curfew will continue from 7pm to 5am. Government and private offices will open with 50 per cent attendance till 4pm. Shops can open till 5pm,” Nitish tweeted after the

meeting.

“Online teaching will continue. Private vehicles will be allowed to ply. This arrangement will continue for a week. There is still a need to stay away from crowds,” he added.

Complete lockdown was imposed in Bihar on May 5 after the state was rattled by an explosive rise in Covid-19 cases that heaped additional burden on the health infrastructure, which is already in an extremely poor shape. The lockdown was extended thrice till June 8.

Shops had been allowed to remain open from 6am to 10am during the first three phases of the lockdown. The timing was increased till 2pm during the last extension of the lockdown.

Only 50 per cent passengers will be allowed in

public transport. Schools,

colleges, educational institutions and all religious places will stay closed.

All kinds of social, educational, cultural, religious, sports, political and entertainment activities will remain banned during over the first phase of unlock from June 9 to 15. Only 20 people can participate in wedding and funeral processions.

The state has witnessed 7.14 lakh Covid-19 cases of which 5,424 people succumbed to the infection. At present, there are 8,230 active cases and the recovery rate has increased to 98.09 per cent. Only 762 new infections were detected on Monday.

State home department additional chief secretary Chaitanya Prasad clarified that the restrictions with regard to timings will not apply on necessary services like water supply, health facilities, police, electricity, fire brigade, telecom, animal husbandry, food grain supply, banks, ATMs, petrol pumps, cooking gas services, e-commerce, postal department and courier services, medicine shops among others.

“Unlock-1 is being initiated. Private vehicles, except during night curfew, will be allowed to ply only if the passengers in it are wearing masks,” Prasad told reporters.