Telangana: Omicron scare may dampen festive spirit

Hyderabad: With Christmas, New Year celebrations and Sankranti round the corner, the Telangana Government is set to impose some restrictions on the movement of people at busy places to contain the spread of corona virus mainly new variant Omicron.

Malls, cinema halls, function halls and restaurants will be under close watch and the management would be advised to take extra safety measures from December last week. A team of officials constituting urban authorities, police and health departments would be entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the safety measures at all crowded places.

Soon after the two cases of Omicron reported in Telangana, the top officials of the State health and police department held a meeting and discussed the measures that need to be taken without interrupting the economic activity during the festival season.

The health department has decided to enforce the Covid safety norms strictly at places like malls and cinema halls where people may gather in large numbers. The mall and theatre managements across the State have been asked to take up regular sanitization of the area and provide hand sanitizers at all entrance points without fail. A senior official said that teams would be deployed at malls to conduct surprise checks on safety protocols.

Regulation of people's movements during the peak hours in the malls would be brought into force from December 23.

The malls and big supermarkets have been asked to follow the Covid protocols. Vaccination of the entire work force has been made compulsory. Boards asking people to maintain social distancing should also be displayed. Among other instructions are that the malls should create special teams to control crowding in showrooms in malls.

All the multiplexes were also instructed to take up sanitization every three hours inside the screening halls and supply hand sanitizers to every visitor. Function hall managements have been asked to submit the details of the functions conducted by the marriage and birthday parties to the local police so that the authorities would keep an eye on the movement of people. The State Municipal Administration and Urban Development department would also take up a special drive of Covid safety at all public places during the celebrations.