New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the state as he announced fresh restrictions to break the chain of transmission.
Addressing a press conference, Himanta Biswa Sarma said night curfew would be in force from 10 pm to 6 am from January 8.
Restaurants would be allowed to operate at 100 per cent seating capacity with fully vaccinated persons, Sarma said. No standing customer will be allowed.
"Only fully vaccinated people will be allowed to enter hotels, restaurants, government offices, shopping malls, multiplexes," ANI quoted Sarma as saying.
The Assam CM also said that all schools up to class 8 in Kamrup-Metropolitan district and up to class 5 in all other districts would remain closed from January 8. No physical classes will take place till January 30, the CM said.
Sarma also said that only Covid-19 patients who fall under the BPL category would be provided free of cost treatment by the Assam government.
"As far as the number of hospital beds is concerned, Assam is in a good condition. We have over 8,700 beds with 2,633 oxygen beds, and 1,000 ICU beds for Covid patients. By the time Covid peaks, we will have 25,000 hospital beds," Sarma said.
On Thursday, Assam recorded 844 fresh Covid-19 infections, 253 more than the previous day, with the tally rising to 6,23,332.
On Friday, seven more people, including a foreign returnee, tested positive for Omicron variant of coronavirus, taking the overall count to nine. Of the seven new Omicron patients, six have no travel history, PTI quoted National Health Mission Director Lakshmanan S as saying.
"Doubling rate is two days, sometimes even in one day; we assume there are lots of Omicron cases in Assam," Sarma said at the press conference.