The Odisha government has banned the New Year celebrations in the state in a bid to check the rising cases of omicron variant of Covid-19.
Christmas celebration will be limited to churches with a maximum of 50 persons joining the mass by strictly following Covid protocol and adhering to the specific conditions imposed by the local authorities, said a release issued by the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) on Friday.
“Zero night celebration, welcome to New Year in hotels, clubs, restaurants, parks, convention halls is completely banned across the state,” said the guidelines.
The SRC has also banned community feast, social gathering, rallies, dances and other cultural programmes. All the restrictions will remain effective from December 25 to January 2, 2022.
Odisha has so far reported four cases of Omicron variant of Covid 19.
Meanwhile, a few districts have imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for a week from December 25.
The number of Covid-19 cases has gone up in the state with 141 new cases being reported in the past 24 hours. At present, Odisha has 1,751 active cases.
