Sustainability of businesses during Covid crisis extremely important: CII Southern Region

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday submitted a set of recommendations to the Tamil Nadu Government stressing the need for continuing economic activity even while undertaking all precautionary measures to stop the spread of coronavirus in the State.

The CII noted that after almost two years of combating the health emergency, it is critical to ensure that economic recovery remains on track to enable people to recover to pre-pandemic income levels. 

The industry body said since Omicron is highly transmissible but a mild variant of Covid, restrictions to contain its spread should be based on the hospitalisation rate rather than positivity rate. It also added that restrictions in the case of high hospitalisation rate should apply to micro containment zones rather than at district or state levels.

In its letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, CII suggested the government to consider social and economic activities separately. Social activities, in particular mass gatherings for any social sports, entertainment, recreation, etc, should be restricted in general to curtail further spread of the Omicron variant among the population, it said. 

CK Ranganathan, Chairman, CII Southern Region, said ensuring continuity and sustainability of businesses during the ongoing Covid crisis is extremely important, especially for MSMEs. He added that CII is working with the Tamil Nadu Government towards business continuity and supporting MSMEs to overcome the economic downturn by facilitating cross-sector initiatives and policy interventions.

Containment strategy

In its letter, CII recommended a containment strategy based on micro zones, which are small, clearly marked geographical areas identified and demarcated by district administrations, to monitor and manage the outbreak. The industry body also said random sampling for testing and sero-positivity and early warning systems will facilitate tracking the spread of the contagion and considering response measures.

“A combination of vaccination rate, hospitalization incidence and sero-prevalence, if available, should be used as parameters to determine containment and subsequent opening of micro zones and the level of restrictions. Containment at micro zones should be considered only when available hospital beds are 75 per cent occupied. Depending on this, the micro zones can be progressively closed or opened up,” CII said.

It also suggested that normal economic activities should continue in the rest of the district and even in micro containment zones under strict supervision. It demanded that all factories may be allowed to function under certain conditions of hygiene and safety in micro containment zones,.

CII suggested that there should be no distinction between essential and non-essential goods and services and added that work from home should be the norm as far as possible for offices.

S Chandrakumar, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu said calibrated restrictions would help the State to sustain the growth momentum and also ensure livelihoods of people during these challenging times.

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