Coronavirus India News Live Updates:
Amid the surge in cases, India has opened the doors of public places like malls and places of religious significance today. Besides coming up with their lists of dos and don’ts for the people, authorities have ensured that premises of religious places, restaurants and malls have been cleaned and provisions for adherence to social distancing and other protocols been made. Malls, hotels, and restaurants; places of worship; schools and colleges, all have been allowed to open in a phased manner over the next couple of months.
Shopping malls and places of worship across the country, barring states like Maharashtra and Goa, are ready to throw their doors open to people from Monday after remaining closed for nearly two-and-a-half months due to the lockdown prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While entrances to religious places and malls must have hand sanitiser dispensers and thermal screening provisions, not more than 50 per cent of seating capacity is going to be permitted at food courts and restaurants, the guidelines say. Instead of dine-ins, the SOPs call for takeaways to be encouraged.
Moreover, the Union Culture Ministry has approved opening of 820 Archaeological Survey of India-protected monuments that have places of worship from Monday. The ministry has decided to open only those monuments among the over 3,000 ASI-maintained monuments where religious events take place, such as Nila Mosque at Hauz Khas enclave, the Qutub archaeological area and Lal Gumbad in Delhi.
Covid vaccine by September?
With the search for a Covid-19 vaccine becoming nothing less than the holy grail for scientists, enormous attention and funding have been focused on developing and mass-producing an injection. The rapid spread of SARS-nCov-2 has led experts to declare that it would continue to spread if a vaccine cannot be found.
In latest developments, British pharma giant AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine in partnership with Oxford University, said it was “on track” to roll out up to two billion doses in September. Meanwhile, US also said that it had already produced two million vaccine doses that are “ready to go” if they “check out for safety”.
