Gangtok: The Sikkim government has allowed the opening of restaurants and eateries but with the strict condition that customers will be required to get their orders packed for consumption at home only as part of relaxation in lockdown 4.0. Sikkim is a COVID-19 free state with all its four districts coming under the green zone.

A notification issued by the chief secretary S C Gupta on Sunday said that inter-district movement of Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) buses to have been allowed with social distancing norms, while taxis, private vehicles and two-wheelers will ply by following a new odd-even rule. Those vehicles with registration numbers ending with even digit will ply on even dates, and those ending with odd numbers will ply on odd dates.

The Chief Secretary on Monday reviewed the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and directed all officials to strictly enforce the guidelines during lockdown 4.0 in the state. He issued the direction while chairing a meeting of the state task force.

"It is incumbent on all officials to ensure that the new guidelines are implemented in totality during lockdown 4.0 till May 31 next," Gupta said.

The chief secretary also reviewed the progress of evacuation of the Sikkimese people from various parts of the country and the logistical and medical arrangements in place for the returnees. Rinzing C Bhutia, who is the secretary, coordination (COVID-19), said that the state coordination (evacuation) cell has successfully evacuated Sikkimese people from other parts of the country since the beginning of this month.

He said that special trains would be plying from May 19 onwards to evacuate a relatively larger number of people belonging to Sikkim. As per the latest figures, 1,841 stranded Sikkimese have returned by various modes of transportations, while a total of 7,356 persons have registered themselves for evacuation.