Lockdown extended till May 17 ... Guidelines permit some relaxations

Volunteers raise a cutout of a person in the middle of a road, to create awareness about staying home during the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the coronavirus pandemic, in New Delhi, Friday, May 1, 2020. (AP)

TT, 2.05.20, New Delhi : The Narendra Modi government on Friday extended the nationwide lockdown for the second time, for two weeks from May 4, and issued new guidelines to regulate different activities during this period.

Based on the risk profiling of the country’s districts into red (hotspot), green and orange zones, the guidelines have permitted some relaxations. The biggest cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore and Chennai, all in the red zone, will stay under strict lockdown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had announced a three-week lockdown with a national address on March 24 as well its first extension on April 14, left Friday’s announcement to the Union home ministry.

The guidelines for the extended lockdown, which are scheduled to apply from May 4 till May 17, follow:

Banned in all zones: Some activities will remain prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of zone. These include travel by air, rail and Metro and inter-state movement by road; the running of schools, colleges, and other educational and training/ coaching institutions; hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants; places of large public gatherings, such as cinemas, malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes, etc; social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings; and religious places/ places of worship for the public.

However, movement of people by air, rail and road will be allowed for select purposes, including security, by the Union home ministry.

Night curfew: Movement of individuals for all non-essential activities shall remain strictly prohibited between 7pm and 7am. Local authorities shall issue orders under appropriate provisions of law, such as prohibitory orders (curfew) under Section 144 of CrPC, and ensure strict compliance.

In all zones, people aged above 65, people with co-morbidities, pregnant women and children aged below 10 should stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes.

Out-patient departments (OPDs) and medical clinics will be permitted to operate in all zones, with social-distancing norms and other safety precautions, except containment zones.

Containment zones: The most sensitive areas of the country, in the context of the spread of Covid-19, falling within the red and orange zones, are designated as containment zones. These are areas where there is significant risk of spread of the infection. The containment areas will be defined by the respective district administrations, taking into account the total number of active cases, their geographical spread, and the need to have well-demarcated perimeters in the context of enforcement.

The local authority shall ensure 100 per cent coverage of the Aarogya Setu app among the residents. The zones will have intensified surveillance protocols, with contact tracing, house-to-house surveillance, home/ institutional quarantining of people based on their risk assessment, and clinical management.

Strict perimeter control will need to be ensured so that there is no movement of people in and out of these zones, except for medical emergencies and to maintain the supply of essential goods and services. No other activity is permitted within the containment zones.

Red zones: In the red zones, outside the containment zones, certain activities are barred in addition to those that are prohibited throughout the country. These are the plying of cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws; the running of taxis and cab aggregators; intra-district and inter-district plying of buses; barber shops, spas and salons

Movement of individuals and vehicles is allowed for permitted activities, with a maximum of two people (besides the driver) in four-wheelers, and with no pillion rider on two-wheelers.

Industrial establishments in urban areas, such as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Export Oriented Units (EOUs), industrial estates and industrial townships with access control, have been permitted.

Also permitted are manufacturing units 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 the construction of renewable energy projects.

Shops in urban areas, for non-essential goods, are not allowed in malls, markets or market complexes. However, all standalone (single) shops, neighbourhood (colony) shops and shops in residential complexes are permitted to remain open in urban areas without any distinction of essential and non-essential

E-commerce activities in the red zones are permitted only for essential goods.

Private offices can operate with up to 33 per cent staff strength according to requirement, with the remaining employees working from home.

All government offices will function with senior officers at the level of deputy secretary and above present in full strength, and up to 33 per cent of the remaining staff attending in keeping with the requirement.

However, defence and security services, health and family welfare, police, prisons, the home guard, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management and related services, National Informatics Centre, customs, Food Corporation of India, National Cadet Corps, Nehru Yuvak Kendra and municipal services will function without restrictions. The delivery of public services will be ensured and the necessary staff deployed.

All industrial and construction activities will be allowed in rural red zones, including MGNREGA projects, food-processing units and brick kilns.

In rural areas, all shops except those in shopping malls can open irrespective of the nature of the goods they sell.

All agriculture activities -- sowing, harvesting, procurement and marketing operations -- are permitted. As is animal husbandry, including inland and marine fisheries. Plantation activities are allowed, including processing and marketing.

All health services (including Ayush) are to remain functional, including the transport of medical personnel and patients through air ambulances.

A large part of the financial sector remains open, including banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), insurance and capital market activities, and credit co-operative societies.

The operation of homes for children, senior citizens, the destitute, women and widows, as well as anganwadis, has been permitted.

Public utilities -- power, water, sanitation, waste management, telecommunications and the Internet -- will remain open, and courier and postal services will be allowed to operate.

Print and electronic media, IT and IT-enabled services, data and call centres, cold storage and warehousing services, private security and facility management services, and services provided by self-employed people except for barbers and salons can function.

The jute industry can function with staggered shifts and social distancing; and the manufacturing of IT hardware and packaging material continues to be permitted.

Orange zones: In addition to the activities permitted in the red zones, taxis and cab aggregators will be allowed to ply with one driver and one passenger only.

Inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed only for the permitted activities. Four-wheelers will have at most two passengers besides the driver; pillion riding will be allowed on two-wheelers.

Green zones: All activities are allowed except those prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of zones.

However, buses can operate with up to 50 per cent seating capacity and bus depots can operate up to 50 per cent of capacity.

All goods traffic is permitted. No state/ UT will stop the movement of cargo for cross-land-border trade under treaties with neighbouring countries. No separate pass is needed for movement that is essential to maintaining the supply of goods and services across the country during the lockdown.

Other activities: All other activities that are not specifically prohibited will be permitted. However, states/ UTs may, based on their assessment, allow select activities from outside the permitted activities, with such restrictions as felt necessary.

At weddings, social distancing will be maintained and the maximum number of guests allowed will be 50. At funerals, the maximum number allowed will be 20.

Liquor shops to open in some places

Liquor, cigarette and tobacco outlets have been allowed to open for the first time since the lockdown began in the fourth week of March.

But this is not a pan-India permission, and there remains a lack of clarity on the areas of restriction.

A Union home ministry official clarified after the issuance of the new relaxation norms that liquor and cigarette vends can only resume business in green and orange zones from May 4.

Another said rural areas would also be exempt from the earlier bar. In addition, states have been given the right to continue the restrictions if they think fit.

Further clarification or amendments, officials indicated, could yet be in the works.

Social distancing will have to be maintained between customers and no more than five people will be allowed at a time in a shop.

Officials in Bengal said their understanding, on the basis of Friday evening’s guidelines from the Centre, was that such shops can open in all areas except containment zones unless any fresh communication said otherwise.