Shillong, June 25: In a major relief for the residents of Shillong city, the government has allowed plying of 15 percent of commercial vehicles i.e. local taxis and auto rickshaws, on the city roads from Monday onwards, barring the buses. At the same time, 30 percent of the public transport vehicles will be allowed in the rural areas of East Khasi Hills district and other parts of the state.

However, all commercial vehicles will have to ensure that they mandatorily display their vaccination status viz. vaccinated or not vaccinated.

Informing this after a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma on Friday, Health Minister AL Hek informed that restaurants and hotels in the state capital are encouraged to opt for home delivery and takeaways. On the other hand, tea-shops in rural areas will also be allowed to open but customers are restricted from sitting inside the shops.

Director of Health Services (MI), Dr Aman War said that there will be check points to verify whether people operating the commercial vehicles and other businesses are vaccinated or yet to be vaccinated.

He said people who enter a shop or a cab whose status is not vaccinated, it is their own risk.

“The idea of why we ask that people should go for vaccination because we have seen that if you contract the virus after vaccination the disease is not so virulent vis-a-vis with the people who have not been vaccinated…that is why we stressed get yourselves vaccinated so that you will not burden the health facilities,” Dr War informed.

Meanwhile, the health minister informed that the government has also decided to extend the provision kits to people who are staying in the different corona care centres. According to him, all these days such provision kits were only made available to people undergoing home isolation.