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Ending all speculation on whether India will extend the lockdown beyond May 3 in its attempts to deal with Covid-19, the government on Friday announced extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 17, with some relaxation, including permission for local transportation in green and orange zones. It has, however, imposed a kind of curfew between 7 pm and 7 am across the country.
The 40-day lockdown was to end on May 3. The new arrangement will be effective May 4. However, people will have to wait for some more time for resumption of train and air services for commercial purposes.
Fresh guidelines
The Home Ministry has come out with a fresh set of guidelines to regulate different activities in this period, based on the risk profiling of the districts into red (hotspot), green and orange zones. The guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in the districts falling in the green and orange zones.
The green zones will be districts with either zero confirmed cases till date, or no confirmed case over the last 21 days. 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. Those districts, which are neither defined as red nor green shall be classified as orange zones. As on date, out of the total 733 districts in India, 319 are in the green zone; 284 in the orange zone; and the remaining 130 in the red zone. All cosmopolitan cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai — are still in the red zone.
Movement of individuals for all non-essential activities shall remain strictly prohibited between 7 pm and 7 am, the Centre has said, adding that local authorities shall issue orders under appropriate provisions of law, such as prohibitory orders [curfew] under Section 144 of CrPC, for this purpose, and ensure strict compliance.
In all zones, persons above 65, those with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below 10, shall stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes. Out-patient departments (OPDs) and medical clinics shall be permitted to operate in the red, orange and green zones.
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Activities banned in all zones
The government has said a limited number of activities will remain prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zones. These include 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.
However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for select purposes as permitted by the Home Ministry.
A number of districts of the country have, within their boundaries, one or more Municipal Corporations (MCs). It has been observed that due to higher population density within the MCs, and consequent greater inter-mixing of people, the incidence of Covid-19 within the boundary of the MC(s) is higher than in the rest of the district. In the new guidelines, therefore, it has been provided that such districts will be classified into two zones — one for the area under the boundary of the MC(s); and another for the area falling outside the boundary of the MC(s).
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