Imphal: The national lockdown for COVID-19 has been extended for another two weeks with effect from May 4, 2020. In this regard, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India (GoI) issued an order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 on Friday to further extend the Lockdown for a period of two weeks beyond May 4, 2020.
MHA also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities during this period, based on the risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zones. The Green Zones will be districts with either zero confirmed cases till date; or, no confirmed case in the last 21 days. 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. Those districts, which are neither defined as Red nor Green, shall be classified as Orange zones.
As per the MHA’s order, 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 are still prohibited.
In all zones, persons above 65 years of age, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 years, 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 Red, Orange and Green Zones, with social distancing norms and other safety precautions; however, these will not be permitted within the Containment Zones.
In the Green Zones, all activities are permitted except the limited number of activities which are prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the Zone. However buses can operate with upto 50% seating capacity and bus depots can operate with upto 50% capacity.
It may be mentioned that India was on a national lockdown since March 25 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
According to ministry of health and family welfare, India has 25,148 COVID-19 active cases and 1,115 deaths as on 5 pm of May 1.
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