Jharkhand government decided to extend partial curbs in the state till January 31 to contain a surge in Covid cases.

State chief secretary Sukhdev Singh, in a notification on Saturday evening, directed that all educational institutions, stadiums, sports centres, parks, gymnasiums, tourist places, zoo and swimming pools would continue to remain closed till further orders.

Educational institutions were allowed to carry out administrative activities with 50 per cent attendance.

The order also said that restaurants will be open with half of their capacity and all markets will remain open till 8pm. However, medicine shops, bars and restaurants have been kept aside from this order.

All government and private institutions will work with 50 per cent capacity. Biometric attendance will be discontinued in government and private institutions with immediate effect. A maximum of 100 people or 50 per cent of the capacity will be able to attend the wedding and funeral and other outdoor functions. All religious places will remain open as before.

For indoor functions, a maximum of 100 persons or 50 per cent of the capacity, whichever is less has been permitted.

Significantly, the earlier curbs were put in place on January 3 during a meeting chaired by chief minister Hemant Soren and were applicable till January 15.

State disaster management and health minister, Banna Gupta, announced the extension in a tweet on his personal Twitter handle.

“The current lockdown has been extended till January 31 with the existing restrictions and relaxation. The government is keeping a close watch on the Covid scenario and necessary decisions will be taken depending on situation. All are requested to adhere to Covid guidelines and stay safe,” tweeted Banna Gupta at 6.35pm.

Incidentally, Banna Gupta tested positive last Saturday and is under home isolation in Jamshedpur.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the state added 3,749 Covid cases and saw discharge of 2,807 cases with three casualties taking the active caseload to 33,189.

The state has a high positivity rate of 5.60 per cent as of Friday. The growth rate of Jharkhand continues to be much higher than the national average of 0.42 per cent, standing at 0.93 per cent on Friday.

The growth rate at 74.58 days is also much higher than national average of 165.94 days. The recovery rate is below the national average of 95.20 per cent, standing at 90.38 per cent and the mortality rate is at par with the national average of 1.30 per cent.

On Saturday late evening, Jharkhand health department bulletin confirmed that out of 87 samples sent to Institute of Life Sciences Bhubaneswar between December last week and January, a total of 14 cases have been confirmed as omicron variant of Covid while one sample is Delta variant while 32 are of other variants of concern of coronavirus.