Bihar to have lockdown from July 16 to 31

The Bihar government has decided to enforce lockdown in the state from July 16 to July 31 in view of rising COVID-19 cases with the government stating that essential services will continue during the period and farming and construction-related activities will also be allowed.

A state government release said that the there is "an alarming surge" in COVID-19 cases in the State of Bihar in last three weeks and positivity rate has also been considerably high.

It said places of worship, commercial and private and government establishments would remain closed apart from mentioned exceptions.

The guidelines said that, while the offices of the central government and its subordinate/autonomous offices will remain closed, services like "defence, central armed police forces, treasury, public utilities (including petroleum, CNG, LPG, PNG), disaster management, power generation and transmission units, post offices, National Informatics Centre, early warning agencies," have been exempted and will continue their services.

Police, home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management and those related to election work and prisons have also been exempted.

As per the Union Health Ministry, the state has a total of 17,959 cases including 12,317 recovered cases while 160 persons have lost their lives due to the virus.

( With inputs from ANI )