Schools, colleges shut in Chandigarh, Holi-milan gatherings banned - Check all restrictions

New Delhi: The Chandigarh administration on Monday (March 22, 2021) announced to shut down all schools and colleges till March 31. The officials also said that all public Holi-milan gatherings will be banned. 

The decisions were taken by the Governor of Punjab and Chandigarh Administrator VP Singh Badnore during a War Room meeting to check the spread of COVID-19. 

The following decisions were taken to stop the spread of coronavirus:

• All restaurants/eating places will close by 11:00 PM and the last order can be taken till 10:00 PM.

• All public Holi-milan gatherings will be banned. The clubs, hotels, restaurants etc will not allow any ceremonial gatherings for Holi. The residents must celebrate Holi at home while following appropriate COVID-19 protocols.

• All schools, colleges and other educational institutions in Chandigarh will remain closed till March 31, 2021.

• The State museums, libraries, auditoriums, theatres etc run by Chandigarh Administration will remain closed till further orders.

• No new permission will be granted for holding any exhibition/mela to entertain gatherings. However, all those, which have been allowed earlier may be allowed to complete as per their scheduled programme.

• Permission from Deputy Commissioner, Chandigarh will be mandatory for holding any event including political and social gatherings and even wedding events. The number of guests will be restricted by the Deputy Commissioner.

• All eating places, restaurants, hotels including food joints in various malls will run only with 50% capacity.

• Strict monitoring of COVID Appropriate Behaviour will be done in crowded places like Sukhna Lake, 'Apni Mandis', markets and malls.

• Municipal Corporation will allow vegetable/fruit vendors to sell vegetables/fruits in carts by visiting various residential areas. 

• Hosts in various events such as marriages, political gatherings and other such events will ensure that all participants wear masks. Wherever necessary, they must distribute masks to the participants.

• The front line workers including the health workers, police officials and municipal officials must come forward to get themselves vaccinated.  

• The eligible teachers and shopkeepers, who are coming in contact with students and people from outside must get themselves vaccinated without delay.

Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh Vijayendra Pal Singh Badnore expressed deep concern about the rising coronavirus cases and suggested that the contact tracing should be intensified and all those, who came into contact with COVID-19 positive cases must be mandatorily tested.  

He also mentioned that visitors reaching Chandigarh by bus, train, air and other public transport modes should be invariably screened and wherever symptoms found, those people must be tested to check infection.

The Deputy Commissioner of Chandigarh informed that they have 1872 active cases with a positivity rate of 10.72%. He also stated that the Administration has already notified 12 Containment Zones and 47,794 challans have been issued for not wearing masks.