Public gatherings down sized

  The number of people who can gather at weddings and funerals have been revised. According to the head of the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of Covid 19 (NOCPOC) Army Commander Shavendra Silva, only 150 guests will be allowed at a wedding where the venue has a seating capacity of more than 500 and only 100 guests will be allowed at a venue with a seating capacity of less than 500. The maximum number of people who can be present at a funeral at any given moment will be 25. The NOCPOC also said that state functions will be postponed to after 1^st Septemberand has asked State sector workers to coordinate with the heads of their department about work schedules. These steps come after warnings and requests by medical specialists for the government to review its decision to allow more than acceptable numbers of people to gather in one place at any given time. Meanwhile, Counterpoint learns reliably that state sector employees have been told they can stagger their work and that pregnant women who work in government departments don’t have to report to work. Recently, the government issued a circular asking all state sector workers to report to work from 2 August and revoked circulars which allowed them to work from home. At the start of the week, public transport was seen cramped with people who were presumably travelling to work. According to the testimonies of some, no extra trains and buses had been laid on to transport the additional number of people who were travelling to their offices for work.