Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) today issued guidelines for the celebration of Good Friday on April 2 amid COVID restrictions.
According to an order issued by Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary the stipulations in the guidelines will be applicable for all religious celebrations for the festival tomorrow, under BMC limits.
The guidelines state the following:
- Any kind of congregations for the celebration of Good Friday in Public is not allowed within the BMC area;
- However usual religious rituals for the celebration of Good Friday in Church are allowed with a maximum number of 50 participants at one point in time. The ceiling of 50 participants is subject to adherence to a social distancing protocol of 6 ft among two-person. In case the size of the Church is such that 50 participants cannot maintain appropriate social distancing among themselves then that many participants are allowed so that they can maintain social distancing of 6 feet. And the number of participants shall not go beyond 50 under any circumstances;
- The Church authorities to ensure that all the participants wear Face Mask/Face Cover appropriately at all times;
- The Church authorities to also ensure that there is the provision of Handwashing/Hand Sanitization at the entry point of the Church for the participants;
- A person having SARI/ILI like symptoms shall not be allowed inside the church;
- Persons above the age of 65, a person with Co-morbidities and children below 10 years of age are advised not to attend such celebrations.
