Mizoram govt issues new guidelines for social gatherings

Aizawl, Aug 14: The Mizoram government has issued additional standard operating procedure (SOP) to be followed in any gathering to ensure that social distancing is strictly maintained in view of the rise of COVID-19 cases in the state, an official said.

The order was issued on Thursday after a meeting of top officials, NGOs, churches and doctors chaired by Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Wednesday, the official said.

The order said that not more than 50 people are allowed in gatherings like marriage ceremony, funeral, memorial stone erection programme, anniversary celebration and any other related functions.

Funeral of a deceased person should be attended by his or her relatives as minimal as possible and only two representatives of an association or union are allowed to attend such funerals, the order said.

It said that any funeral should be held at either church hall or Young Mizo Association hall or any other community hall in a locality to which the deceased person belongs and such arrangements will be made by the local church where the deceased belong to and YMA of that locality in order to maintain social distancing.

Old persons and people with co-morbidities are prohibited from attending funerals, the order said.

The order prohibited congregational singing called 'Zaikhawm', a traditional practice to mourn a dead person or celebrate an event in any gathering especially funeral and marriage ceremony.

The attendees should wear face masks and each village or local level task force and YMA will maintain particulars of the attendees - their names, addresses and mobile numbers, it said.

Mizoram till Thursday had reported 649 COVID-19 cases of which 319 are actives cases as 330 people have recovered from the disease, the official added.