The Assam government has relaxed the COVID-19 curfew by an hour from August 18 in view of the fall in infection rate.
The government has also allowed inter-district movement of private vehicles barring to and from Kamrup (Metropolitan) district and offline classes in higher educational institutes with fully vaccinated students besides withdrawing the odd-even system for vehicles.
Guwahati comprises much of the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district.
A new set of standard operating procedures issued by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) on August 17 said the night curfew hours from Wednesday would be from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. and normal business would accordingly remain open till 6 p.m.
The current curfew schedule is from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. and business hours up to 5 p.m.
While the inter-district movement of private vehicles and people had been allowed, inter-district public transport would continue to remain suspended until further orders, the notification said.
“The physical classes in respect of final year of graduate, post-graduate, engineering, medical, nursing and aeronautical engineering courses may be allowed to be started with fully vaccinated students,” the ASDMA said.
The number of people allowed to gather in open spaces for any public function has been increased to 200 and up to 50% of the capacity of a hall or 200 fully vaccinated people, whichever is lower in closed venues.
Up to 25 people have been allowed to gather for marriage or funeral programmes and up to 20 fully vaccinated people have been allowed to gather at iconic religious places. For other places of worship or prayers, the maximum number of people allowed to gather is 10.
Cinema and theatre halls, however, would continue to remain closed, the notification said.
According to Assam’s Health Minister Keshab Mahanta, the positivity rate on August 16 was 0.69% and the recovery rate was 97.49%. There were 10 deaths attributed to COVID-19 on Monday.
