Nagaland government on Saturday re-imposed a night curfew, restricted mass gatherings and directed schools not to hold classes up to class eight till January 31 to check the spread of coronavirus.?? ? ?

Nagaland Chief Secretary J Alam has ordered night curfews from 9 pm to 5 am from Sunday and restriction on mass gatherings to 50 per cent of the capacity of the venue or up to a maximum of 200 people, whichever is lower, subject to all those taking part are fully vaccinated. In case of unavoidable need for bigger gatherings, permission will have to be obtained from the respective district task force (DTF), the order said.? ??

Goods vehicles, vehicles transiting the state without any stopovers, movement due to medical and other emergencies, for agricultural purposes and any other movement permitted by the respective DTF will be exempted from the purview of the night curfew, it said. Malls, shopping complexes, restaurants, gymnasiums, cinema halls/theatres, parks, places of entertainment and recreation areas have been permitted to operate with up to 50 percent capacity and all visitors, staff and others concerned should be asymptomatic and fully vaccinated.? ? ? ?

Any person entering the state and is above 12 years of age will be required to carry a negative RT-PCR report done not earlier than three days of the date of arrival, the order said. If the person is not carrying a negative COVID-19 test report or has a negative report but is symptomatic, or is below 12 years of age and symptomatic then he/she will be required to undergo testing for COVID-19 at the point of entry in the state.?

The person will be in home/paid quarantine till the declaration of the test result, the government order said. These provisions will come into effect from Monday, the order said. Principal secretary (Home) Abhijit Sinha said that physical classes for students studying up to Class VIII stand suspended till January 31. Currently educational institutions in Nagaland are on vacation and most of them are scheduled to reopen from January 12.?? ??

Any student of Class IX and above, who has completed 15 years of age, will be allowed to take admission and attend regular offline classes only if he/she has been jabbed at least once, he said. Any person or group violating the government order or other standard operating procedures and guidelines for preventing the spread of the pandemic will be prosecuted under the Disaster Management Act and other applicable legal provisions. The high powered committee on COVID-19 headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had on Friday decided to clamp stricter restrictions in view of the emerging COVID-19 situation.

-With PTI Inputs