The Srinagar administration on Tuesday laid down detailed guidelines to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus and ordered the closure of all restaurants and food courts and imposed restrictions on conferences and workshops in the city. The administration had already announced the closure of schools, colleges and universities across the region. However, on Tuesday, in a three-page notification, several measures were announced under the Disaster Management Act 2005, to strengthen the mechanism to fight the Covid-19 spread. “No restaurants, food courts, food joints, street food kiosks, roadside eateries, community kitchens, home-delivery of food services shall operate in district Srinagar till further orders,” the notification read. It also said that no conferences, workshops, rallies, gatherings, sit-in protests, shall be organized till March 31. It has also asked the community hall owners not to offer any bookings for social or religious gatherings to avoid the large gatherings. “It shall be mandatory for all travel operators to declare details of 100 per cent bookings done through them for all national and international air travel, which may include local road journeys,” it said. A day ago, the administration announced the closure of public parks and gardens in district Srinagar. The administration said that Rs one crore had been released to hospitals for response measures. It has also asked the government and private hospitals in the district, which has a more than 1.3 million population, to put the requisite facilities as per the standard operating procedure. The closure of markets, however, has not been announced yet, but people have been asked to avoid over-crowding. In the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, three have tested positive for the virus so far. However, many individuals continue to be in quarantine whose test results are awaited. Many, who had a travel history abroad have tested negative.
