Lockdown Extension: MHA Extends Lockdown For Two More Weeks: What’s Open What’s Closed

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lockdown

The nationwide lockdown has been extended for two weeks by the center. The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the extension on Friday.

There will be changes in this extension as the restrictions are not the same as it’s the previous version. The strictness in a particular area depends on the level of the COVID-19 outbreak in that area. It’s not wrong to name this lockdown as, Lockdown 3.0 because it’s the third time when the lockdown gets extended.

The government names the districts as green, red, or orange zones depending on the risk of COVID-19.

  • The districts with zero confirm case to date or no confirmed case in the last 21 days are named as the Green Zone.
  • The district with the total number of active cases, doubling the rate of confirming cases, the extent of testing, and surveillance feedback from the districts are classified as the Red Zones.
  • The district which does not come under any of the above is classified as Orange Zones.

So the answer to what is open and what is close in the Lockdown 3.0 is as follow:

The list of activities which are open are-

Red Zones

  1. All industrial and construction activities in rural areas, including MNREGA works, food-processing units, and brick-kilns are permitted; besides, in rural areas, without distinction to the nature of goods, all shops, except in shopping malls are allowed.
  2. All agriculture activities, e.g., sowing, harvesting, procurement and marketing operations in the agricultural supply chain are allowed.
  3. Animal husbandry activities are fully allowed, including inland and marine fisheries.
  4. All plantation activities are permitted, including their processing and marketing.
  5. All health services (including AYUSH) are to remain functional, including transport of medical personnel and patients through air ambulances.
  6. A large part of the financial sector remains available, which includes banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), insurance and capital market activities, and credit co-operative societies.
  7. Operation of homes for children, senior citizens, destitute, women and widows, etc.; and operation of Anganwadis have also been allowed.
  8. Public utilities, e.g., utilities in power, water, sanitation, waste management, telecommunications, and the internet will remain available, and courier and postal services will be permitted to operate.
  9. Most of the commercial and private establishments have been permitted in the Red Zones. These include print and electronic media, IT and IT enabled services, data and call centers, cold storage and warehousing services, private security and facility management services, and services provided by self-employed persons, except for barbers, etc.
  10. 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; Jute industry with staggered shifts and social distancing; and manufacturing of IT hardware and manufacturing units of packaging material will continue to be allowed.

 

Orange Zones

  1. In the Orange Zones, in addition to activities permitted in Red Zone, taxis and cab aggregators will be permitted with 1 driver and 1 passenger only.
  2. Inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed for permitted activities only. Four wheeler vehicles will have maximum of two passengers besides the driver and pillion riding will be allowed on two-wheelers.

Green Zones

  1. In the Green Zones, all activities are allowed except the limited number of activities that are restricted throughout the country, irrespective of the zone. However, buses can operate with upto 50 percent seating capacity and bus depots can operate with upto 50 percent capacity.
  2. All goods traffic is to be authorized. No State/ UT shall stop the movement of cargo for cross land-border trade under Treaties with neighboring countries. No separate pass of any sort is needed for such movement, which is essential for maintaining the supply chain of goods and services across the country during the lockdown period.

The list of activities which are closed in Lockdown 3.0

The limited number of activities which are prohibited in every zones include travel by air, rail, metro, and inter-state movement by the road.

Running of school, college, institutions, hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants, place of a large gathering, such as cinema halls, malls, gym, sports complex, social, political, cultural and all kind of gathering, religious place/ place of worship for public will continue to remain close during the lockdown.

~ Neha Dhingra

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