Puducherry extends COVID lockdown till June 7, essential services to be available till noon

Representational Image (Credits: PTI)

New Delhi: The Puducherry government on Saturday (May 29, 2021) extended the COVID-19 lockdown in the union territory till midnight of June 7. The decision was taken by the government in order to curtail the second wave of the virus in the Union Territory.

The union territory has been under lockdown since May 10, the COVID-19 restrictions were later extended on May 24 as well. 

The announcement was made by the office of Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday. The release from the  Lieutenant Governor’s office also added that now the essential services in the union territory would be available till noon every day.

Additionally, self-employed people providing basic services of repair, maintenance of electrical, plumbing, water purifier and vehicles are brought under the classification of exemption during the lockdown.

The Lieutenant Governor has also accorded approval to incur expenditure of Rs 1.05 crore to buy Covishield drug from Serum Institute of India Limited Pune for vaccinating residents of Puducherry in the age group of 18 to 44 years.

The government is also permitted to purchase the injection LiposomalAmphotericin on an emergency basis to treat patients with black fungus (mucormycosis) and expenditure sanction for Rs 2.83 lakhs had been approved to purchase the drug for the management of the disease, it said.

She gave her nod to recruit 214 health care workers to work on a short-term contract basis to tackle the second wave of Covid-19.

She approved a sanction of Rs 4.52 crore to the Slum Clearance Board of Puducherry to implement the housing projects under the Pradhan Manthri Awas Yojana in the Union Territory, the release said.

(With PTI inputs)