Liquor shops to schools: What's open, what's not as India extends lockdown

Districts will be tagged as red, green and orange zones based on severity of coronavirus cases in extended lockdown.

India has extended a nationwide lockdown for another two weeks to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The home ministry issued new guidelines to regulate life and work in this period, based on districts divided into red ( coronavirus hotspot), green and orange zones.

Here are key things to know about life and work under two more weeks of lockdown, according to guidelines issued by the ministry:

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.

The containment areas would be defined by district administrations, taking into account the total number of active cases, their geographical spread, and the need to have well demarcated perimeters from the enforcement point of view. The local authority shall ensure 100% coverage of Aarogya Setu app among the residents of containment zones.

A limited number of activities will remain prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zone including 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, according to the ministry.

Movement of individuals, for all non-essential activities, shall remain strictly prohibited between 7 pm to 7 am. 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 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.”

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 construction of renewable energy projects.

 

A large number of other activities are allowed in the Red Zones. 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 permitted. All agriculture activities are permitted. Most of the commercial and private establishments have been allowed in the Red zones. These include 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 persons, except for barbers etc., as mentioned earlier.

The other industrial activities 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.

Sale of liquor, paan, tobacco will be allowed in green zones after ensuring minimum six-feet social distancing. Not more than 5 persons at one time at a shop will be allowed