New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS): The Centre on Monday suspended the biometric attendance marking for all its employees, till January 31, as a precautionary measure to curb the Covid infection.

All the employees have, instead, been asked to mark their attendance in attendance registers to be maintained manually.

"As a precautionary measure, it has been decided to suspend the marking of biometric attendance in Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system in all ministries, departments of the government of India, including its attached and subordinate offices, with immediate effect till January 31, 2022," an order issued by the Department of Personnel said.

The guidelines from the ministry has also asked all the heads of departments shall to ensure that all employees wear masks at all times and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour strictly.

India on Monday registered single-day rise of 33,750 Covid cases in a span of 24 hours. The active caseload has also jumped to 1,45,582 which constitute 0.42 per cent of the country's total positive cases. With 123 new deaths on Monday, the total death toll has climbed to 4,81,893.