No change in Lockdown rules till September 4: Assam Chief Secretary

Guwahati: Amid murmurs of yet another lockdown worries over rising demand for oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients, Assam's Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna today notified that no more relaxations will be announced for the time being and the previous notification will remain in effect till September 4 midnight.

"Under the powers conferred upon me under the Disaster Management Act, do hereby order that measures, as stipulated in our earlier order, vide no. ASDMA.24/2020/Part - 1/ 98 dated the 13th August 2020 will remain in force till midnight of 4th September 2020;" the Chief Secretary said in a notification issued on Monday (August 31). The Government's notice further added that "certain issues need to be examined thoroughly before any further relaxations are allowed."

"These orders/specifications may be modified/altered at any time depending upon circumstances prevailing in the State and without any advance notice to anyone," it added.

Those waiting for newer Unlock 4.0 guidelines will have to wait a little longer. To jog one's memory, one can read about the relaxations announced by the Assam Government in its Unlock 3.0 HERE

The notification has come merely days after the Centre announced its 'Unlock 4' guidelines, containing the latest relaxations in its bid to resume economic activities on a wider scale. In this list of relaxations, the lifting of the ban on metros and the 

The Chief Secretary recently lashed out at certain sections of society by openly flouting guidelines such as the wearing as masks, going on to warn that another complete lockdown could be imposed if things continue in the same vein. In another instance, he has promised that there will be "visible action" against the rule offenders and strict penalties shall be imposed.

Meanwhile, the state's health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the gap between the demand for and production of oxygen in Assam, which has the state government worried.

The COVID-19 and non-COVID patients have together been consuming an average of 25 metric tonnes of oxygen per day and the requirement is inching closer to the daily production of 37.86 MT in the state, Sarma recently revealed at a presser in Guwahati.

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