Punjab bans indoor weddings
The Punjab government has imposed a ban on indoor weddings and other ceremonies on Friday implementing National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC)’s decision to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Wedding hall owners had earlier rejected the NCOC decision of banning indoor weddings, saying that they could not shut down their venues as they had collected advance payments for bookings.
According to a notification issued by the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD), the ban on indoor ceremonies imposed under the Punjab Infectious Diseases (Prevention and Control) Ordinance 2020 would last till January 31, 2021.
“Marriage ceremonies and other events would only be allowed in open spaces with not more than 300 guests,” the P&SHD spokesperson confirmed.
He said that the participants must ensure the implementation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and facemasks are mandatory at all the public places.
It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of November as many as 208 individuals have lost their lives to Covid-19 and the number of new infections has more than doubled in Punjab as per government data.
On Friday, at least 15 more people succumbed to the virus in the province; so far the total number of deaths across Punjab has been recorded as 2,811 altogether. Officials also recorded 292 coronavirus deaths at the private hospitals after audit.
Authorities cite that the number of coronavirus cases in the province have reached 112,893 with Lahore topping the list with 264 new cases during the last 24 hours.
Moreover, 94 new cases were reported in Rawalpindi, 51 in Multan, 24 each in Gujranwala and Khushab, 17 in Okara, 16 in Sargodha and 15 in Faisalabad during the same period. Punjab Health department has conducted over 1.8 million coronavirus tests to date, while 97,890 patients have recovered from the disease altogether.
The provincial health secretary has also urged the citizens to cooperate in the campaign against coronavirus as the second wave of the pandemic could be more damaging than the first one.
“People’s cooperation is necessary alongside government aide,” he stressed. On November 15, Marriage Hall Owners Association President Rana Raees and others had claimed that Federal Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Minister Asad Umar was acting against the policies of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had opposed the closure of businesses.
“We had approached the authorities on the matter but no one responded to us properly, which is why we have decided to keep the halls functioning,” said Raees, pointing out that there was no ban on processions, shopping malls and other businesses, and restrictions were being unjustly imposed on just wedding halls.
The wedding hall owners stated that they had only begun to recover from the losses they had incurred during the lockdown post Covid-19 outbreak in March.
“If we stop operating, how will we pay our workers?” they questioned, complaining that the government had not offered them any relief.
“The NCOC did not do anything for the hundreds of workers who lost their source of income during the lockdown,” said one of the representatives, alleging that the government had received funds of billions of rupees on account of pandemic relief but did not pay the workers more than Rs12,000.
Raees told the citizens to not worry as they would not close the wedding halls but would instead cooperate in every possible way with the government in implementing SOPs at the ceremonies.
Meanwhile, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Town Planning Wing Zone-I on Friday sealed 12 marriage halls and a marquee on Canal Road.