The State Government has decided to give relaxation in the curfew from 6 am in the morning to 8 pm in the evening, to facilitate the common people. This was disclosed by the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while presiding over the video conferencing in the wake of coronavirus with all the Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers of the State from Shimla today.Chief Minister said that since inter district buses would start plying from 1st June, it must be ensured that there was proper social distancing in the buses and also at the bus stands. He said that the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police would provide adequate police force for crowd management and law and order maintenance at all the bus stands. He said that the buses would be allowed to ply with not more than 60 percent occupancy and the drivers, conductors and passengers would follow all the safety protocols of the Health Department.Jai Ram Thakur said that effective mechanism of Information Education and Communication (IEC) should be evolved to sensitize the people regarding the preventive steps to be taken to check spread of the COVID pandemic. He said that, proper hoarding must be installed at bus stands and other places to motivate the people to maintain social distancing and use face masks besides adequate arrangement for announcements through public address system.
Chief Minister said that inter-district movement of the people of the State would be allowed without any pass, but passes would be required for interstate movement. He said that the people coming from other parts of the country would be quarantined. He said that people coming from red zones would be kept in institutional quarantine and those from other areas would be kept in home quarantine. He said that the persons in institutional quarantine would be allowed to go home only after their test for COVID-19 was negative.Jai Ram Thakur said that over 1.60 lakh Himachalis stranded in various parts of the country have reached the State from 25th April till now. He said that about 91,000 have been kept under home quarantine and over 7000 have been kept under institutional quarantine. He said that main focus should be laid on tracing and screening of all the contacts of COVID positive patients to ensure their timely treatment and check spread of this virus.Chief Minister said that the Home quarantine facilities must be strengthened and made more effective. He said that the representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions must be involved in a big way to keep track of the people arriving from other parts of the country. He said that they should also motivate the people to strictly follow the norms of home quarantine.Chief Secretary Anil Khachi, Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu, Additional Chief Secretary Health R.D. Dhiman, Principal Secretaries Prabodh Saxena, J.C. Sharma and Onkar Sharma and Special Secretary to the Chief Minister D.C.Rana other senior officers were also present on the occasion.