The Jharkhand government on Wednesday announced the extension of its ongoing partial lockdown till May 27 and introduced further restrictions banning all inter and intra state buses.

A decision on the latest mode of lockdown was announced on Wednesday night after a meeting of the state disaster management authority (SDMA) under the chairmanship of chief minister Hemant Soren.

Under the new measures, the number of people at marriage gatherings have been brought down to 11 from the earlier cap of 50 and mandatory quarantine (home or institutional) of anyone entering the state for seven days.

All the new rules will come into effect from May 16 stated a statement released by IPRD. “Between 6am of May 13 and 16, all the norms announced during the previous notification will continue to remain in force,” it read.

As far as home or institutional quarantine is concerned, it will not be applicable to those who return back within 72 hours.

In order to curb the transmission chain of coronavirus infection, the state government had first announced partial lockdown on April 22 for a week, which further got extended to May 13. Essential services along with operation of few other key segments like, courier, construction, mining and wine shops were allowed to run as per the prescribed SOPs. Permitted commercial activities were allowed to run till 2pm, post which, complete lockdown was observed.

The movement of people was restricted till 2pm, after which, they were only allowed for medical or other emergencies in public or private transport depending on the availability.

However, this time, people can only travel in their private vehicles for prescribed reasons only through e-pass, which will be issued by respective district administrations, stated the press release.