Nationwide Lockdown Extended By 2 Weeks: What's Allowed, What's Not

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday announced that the country will remain in Lockdown until May 17, extending the current lockdown which was to end after completing 40 days in two phases on May 3.

The country recorded its biggest single-day spike of 1,913 new COVID-19 cases and 73 deaths, according to Friday morning’s Health Ministry update. Total cases now stand at 35,365 with the death toll rising to 1,152. Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with close to 10,500 cases and a death toll of 459.

The MHA also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in the lockdown period, based on the risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zones. The guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in the districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones.

The classification of districts as Red Zones will take into account the total number of active cases, doubling rate of confirmed cases, extent of testing and surveillance feedback from the districts.

The Green Zones are districts with either zero confirmed cases till date or no confirmed case in the last 21 days.

Those districts, which are neither defined as Red nor Green, shall be classified as Orange zones.

PROHIBITED ACROSS INDIA IN ALL ZONES

• · Travel by Air, rail, metro and inter-State movement by road
• · Running of schools, colleges, and other educational and training/ coaching institutions
• · Hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants
• · Places of large public gatherings, such as cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes etc
• · Social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings; and,
• · Religious places/ places of worship for public.
• · Curfew to remain in place from 7 pm till 7 am for Non Essential work
• · However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for select purposes, and for purposes as permitted by MHA.

RED ZONE ( WHAT IS PERMITTED AND WHAT IS NOT)

• · E-commerce only for essential services
• · Private offices can start work with a limit of not more than 33% employees, the rest to work from home
• · Movement of individuals and vehicles is allowed only for permitted activities, with a maximum of 2 persons (besides the driver) in four-wheeler vehicles, and with no pillion rider in the case of two-wheelers.
• · Industrial establishments in urban areas, viz., Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Export Oriented Units (EOUs), industrial estates and industrial townships with access control have been permitted.
• · Manufacturing of essential goods, including drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw material and intermediates; production units, which require continuous process, and their supply chain; manufacturing of IT hardware; jute industry with staggered shifts and social distancing; and, manufacturing units of packaging material.
• · Construction activities in urban areas have been limited to in-situ construction (where workers are available on site and no workers are required to be brought in from outside) and construction of renewable energy projects.
• · Shops in urban areas, for non-essential goods, are not allowed in malls, markets and market complexes. However, all standalone (single) shops, neighborhood (colony) shops and shops in residential complexes are permitted to remain open in urban areas, without any distinction of essential and non-essential.
• · (NOT PERMITTED) Plying of cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws; running of taxis and cab aggregators; intra-district and inter-district plying of buses; and, barber shops, spas and saloons.

(RED ZONE) RURAL AREAS

• Apart from the above, All Shops allowed to open except in Malls
• All industrial and construction activity

ORANGE ZONE ( What’s allowed)

• · All activities allowed in Red Zone PLUS
• · Cab Aggregators with 1 driver and 1 passenger only
• · 2 passengers can travel in cars apart from Driver
• · Pillion rider to be allowed on 2 wheelers

GREEN ZONE:

• · All activities allowed in Red and Orange Zone except those prohibited across the country, Plus
• · Buses to operate at maximum 50% capacity
• · Bus depots can operate at a maximum 50% capacity

CONTAINMENT ZONE within the (Red and Orange Zones)

• · Mandatory 100% coverage of Aarogya Setu app among the residents of the Containment Zone.
• · Strict perimeter control to be ensured
• · No movement of people in and out of these Zones, except for medical emergencies, and for maintaining supply of essential goods and services.
• · No other activity is permitted within the Containment Zones.