Covid 19 Lock-down India- Major Highlights of lock-down 4.0
With the rise in the infected cases of Covid19 in India, situation to normalize life still stays a challenging step. Lockdown 3 couldn’t show a better control with increasing impatience of the public and their movements. Reopening of few departments projected chaos and confusion at many states. India today has almost crossed the China’s record of Covid19 cases and in this threatening situation, the only way to bring into control the situation is lockdown 4.
The Centre, on Sunday, 17th of May, extended the Covid 19 lockdown for two more weeks till May 31 with few relaxations which seem to completely open the economy.
The nationwide lockdown was first imposed for 21 days starting March 25 and then extended on April 15 and later on May 4 with an aim to curb the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
However, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Sunday, the detailed guidelines for lockdown 4.0 as to what has been permitted and what is prohibited.
The centre has announced considerable relaxations in non-containment zones, yet the night curfew, between 7 pm and 7 am, will continue in all zones.
Significantly, in its guidelines for Phase 4.0 of the lockdown, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the “delineation of red, green and orange zones will be decided by the state and UT governments after taking into consideration the parameters shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.”
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday laid down the broad “parameters” on which a “multi-factorial analysis,” should be based.
These include: the total number of active cases, active cases per lakh population, doubling rate over a 7-day period, case fatality ratio, tests per lakh population, and sample positivity rate. For each of these parameters, a “critical” level and a “desirable” level have been defined.
Though the markets, offices, industries and businesses will be allowed to open but the shopping malls, cinema halls, schools, colleges, hotels and restaurants, and religious and political gatherings will continue to remain prohibited.
Domestic and international flights and metro rail will remain out of bounds for the general public. Inter-state and intra-state movement of “passenger vehicles and buses” will be permitted with the consent of the states involved. The move will greatly ease public transportation and is likely to provide some solace to the migrant labour on the roads.
However, considering the likely surge in demand for work in rural areas as migrant workers, who are travelling to their home towns amid the coronavirus lockdown and are unlikely to return to the cities soon for work, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced a sharp 65 per cent hike over the budget outlay for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the fifth and final tranche of Atma Nirbhar Bharat package.
District authorities have been asked to advise individuals to install the Aarogya Setu app on compatible mobile phones and regularly update their health status on the app. “This will facilitate timely provision of medical attention to those individuals who are at risk,” the home ministry said.
We expect and hope the lockdown 4 to be successful and will help in defeating virus. It is an urge to the public to follow the rules and regulations of lockdown 4, maintain social distancing and save lives.
