Kohima, Sep 28 (PTI) The Nagaland government Tuesday decided to extend its latest phase of unlocking till October 31 with more relaxations, officials said.

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The state government has been announcing the unlocking process in a phased manner since July 1 and the current Unlock phase six was to end on September 30.

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The decision was taken at a review meeting of the High Powered Committee (HPC) on COVID-19 helmed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, government spokesperson and minister Neiba Kronu said.

The government decided to relax the night curfew timing by an hour and keep it in force from 10 pm to 4 am, he said.

The HPC also permitted the functioning of all religious places including churches and places of worship with 100 per cent capacity.

However, they have to strictly adhere to the laid down SOPs and also follow Covid appropriate behaviour (CAB) at all times, he said.

Sports activities and other mass gatherings will also be permitted by strictly adhering to CAB, he said.

The government spokesperson also informed that while the decision to open schools for the conduct of physical classes for classes 5 and above from October 1 still stands, the HPC has decided to open all categories of educational institutes, including pre-primary levels from November 1 if the situation continues to improve.

He said that those fully vaccinated or who have taken one dose of vaccine at least 15 days before undertaking the journey would be allowed to travel to Nagaland.

While the HPC in its earlier meeting on September 13 had decided to host the Hornbill Festival in December, a separate meeting will be held with the Health and Tourism departments to chalk out the final programme, the minister said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)