By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, May 1: India’s ministry of Home affairs on Friday declared the extension of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown for two more weeks until May 17. The home ministry implemented new guidelines based on different colour code zones- Red, Green and Orange- based on the number of cases and risk categories in those areas.
Red zones have a significant risk of spread of infection; green zones include areas with either zero cases or no confirmed cases in the past 21 days; those with moderate or minimal cases are considered orange zones. Districts in green and orange zones will see considerable relaxations to revive economic activities which have remained stalled since India announced nationwide lockdown that began in March. Red zones areas including cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Ahmedabad, will stay under strict lockdown.
Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur earlier this week on Monday said that another extension of the lockdown would help further contain the outbreak of the coronavirus. He noted that 6 of the 12 districts in the state have been marked green since only 10 positive cases are being treated currently whereas 20 patients have already recovered from the disease. Kangra district has been marked orange.
Restrictions in sectors such as agriculture & plantation, health services, finance sectors (banks, insurance, etc.), public utilities, and manufacturing units of essential goods have been relaxed. Orange zones will, in addition to activities permitted in red zones, have taxi and cab drivers permitted to function only with 1 driver and 1 passenger. Only permitted activities by the state will be granted the Inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles.
The new guidelines for mobility will ban movement from 7 pm to 7 am except for emergency reasons. Travel by air, rail, and inter-state movement by road will remain banned as schools, colleges, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, malls, shopping centres, gyms, and sports complexes will continue to remain shut. Social, political, cultural, and religious gatherings will not be resumed. In the Green Zones, all activities will reopen except those banned across the country.
As of Friday, India has 35,365 positive COVID-19 cases with 1,152 deaths.
