Government of Sikkim Issues New Guidelines Amid COVID-19 Surge

Sikkim- Amid a rising number of COVID cases in Sikkim, the state government on Monday decided to issue a fresh set of guildelines pertaining to the entry of people from the Rammam check post in West Sikkim and the closure of various centre or state government-aided educational institutes, universities, colleges, tutorials, hostels and coaching institutes.

With respect to the regulations for the entry of people from the Rammam check post in West Sikkim,  the government has instructed the post-in-charge to maintain the daily IN and OUT register where the details of the person and the time of entry and exit shall be strictly recorded. The names of only those people who are entering and exiting West Sikkim on the same day will be recorded in the register. 

The visitors/residents entering west Sikkim through the Rammam check post shall fill up the entry form and submit it to the post counter. The SDM (Soreng) will be made responsible to collect the forms on a daily basis, digitalizing them and sending them to the relevant teams for contact tracing. 

For the tourist entering through the Rammam check post, a negative RTPCR test 72 hours prior to entering Sikkim is mandatory and in case the tourist does not possess the RTPCR test results then the tour agent/hotel owner must ensure that the tourist is tested at the nearest PHC with Rapid Antigen Test. 

The entry and exit points at Salangdang and Budang shall only be opened for the employees and labourers engaged in the National Thermal Electric Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC). The entry of visitors/citizens will only be permitted if they are exiting the district on the same day provided that the details of the people along with the times of entry and exit are recorded by the security in the entry points. Read more

The state government has also ordered to shut down all centre and state government-run educational institutions, universities, colleges, tutorials, hostels and coaching institutes till May 31, 2021. 

During the closure of the institutes, only students are not required to come to school for regular classes or other educational activities. 

A 50% attendance policy will be followed for the teaching faculty and staff members. 

Government employees should not leave their stations without the prior permission of the concerned authorities. 

All online mode of education like teaching, assignment and assessment shall digitally continue and as for elementary schools where online teaching is not feasible, homeschooling will be permitted. 

All school heads and teachers are required to Sikkim Edutech to digitally reach out to the students. 

The BRCC's and CRCC's working under Samagra Shikha must actively support online or homeschooling mode of learning and avail educational contents to the teachers for the benefit of the students whenever online mode of learning is not feasible. 

All the employees of educational institutes and students above the age of 18 to get vaccinated as soon as it is made available by the government. 

The heads of the institutions and the teachers are expected to maintain the cleanliness of the educational campus premises and spread awareness in the management of COVID-19 in their respective areas. 

Sikkim on Sunday reported 148 fresh cases of COVID-19 taking the total tally to 7,306. The Himalayan state has 934 active cases with a death toll of 138. 

Meanwhile, India yet again witnessed a new highest single-day spike in the cases of the novel coronavirus as a deadly second wave sweeps the country with 3.52 Lakh New Cases and 2,812 Covid-induced fatalities, taking the total active caseload in the country to 28.07 lakh cases. So far, there have been 1.95 lakh covid-induced deaths from across the nation. The fresh surge in the cases of this deadly infectious disease takes the total tally of cases to 1.73 crores. Today marks the fifth consecutive day that India reported over 3 lakh cases on a daily basis. A staggering 10 lakh cases have been reported in the last 72 hours.

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