With cases of Delta Plus variant coming to light, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh today ordered extension of the COVID restrictions till 10th of July with some more relaxations, including opening of bars, pubs and ahatas at 50 per cent capacity, beginning 1st of July.<br />'' <br />''Skill Development Centres and Universities have also been allowed to open on the condition that the staff and students must have taken at least one dose of vaccine.<br />'' <br />''The IELTS coaching institutes were already allowed to be opened, subject to students and staff having taken at least one dose of vaccine.<br />'' <br />''Announcing the relaxations at a high-level COVID review meeting, the Chief Minister made it clear that the bars and pubs would have to strictly maintain social distancing protocols, and waiters/ servers/other employees should have taken at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.<br />'' <br />''He made it clear that it would be the responsibility of the owners to ensure that the conditions are met.<br />'' <br />''Expressing satisfaction over the decline in positivity to less than one per cent with overall fall in active cases, the Chief Minister noted that the positivity rate in some districts still remained over one per cent.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">He said that the month wise whole genome sequencing has shown that more than 90 per cent is a variant of concern, with the original virus having been practically replaced by variants two cases (Ludhiana and Patiala) have shown Delta Plus variant, while in May and June, the Delta variant was most prevalent, he pointed out.</span><br />