New Delhi-The nationwide lockdown in India has been extended for two more weeks. In this regard, the Government of India (GoI) on May 1^st issued an order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to further extend the Lockdown with effect from May 4, 2020.  

MHA also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in this period, based on the risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zones. The guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in the districts falling in the 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, the extent of testing and surveillance feedback from the districts.

Those districts, which are neither defined as Red nor Green, will be classified as Orange zones. 

Further, the State Government of Himachal Pradesh is likely to take decision on permitted and prohibited activities in respective zones on May 2nd in the Cabinet meeting. 

What’s Not Permitted

Under the new guidelines, a limited number of activities will remain prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the Zone. 

These include 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 the public.  However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for selected purposes, and for purposes as permitted by MHA.

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

Local authorities will 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, will have to stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes. Out-Patient Departments (OPDs) and Medical clinics will 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 Red Zones, outside the Containment Zones, certain activities are prohibited in addition to those prohibited throughout the country.  These are:  plying of cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws; running of taxis and cab aggregators; intra-district and inter-district plying of buses; and, barbershops, spas and salons.

What’s Permitted in Red Zone

Certain other activities have been allowed in the Red Zones with restrictions. Movement of individuals and vehicles is allowed only for permitted activities, with a maximum of 2 persons (besides the driver) in four-wheeler vehicles, and with no pillion rider in the case of two-wheelers. 

Industrial establishments in urban areas, viz., Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Export Oriented Units (EOUs), industrial estates and industrial townships with access control have been permitted. 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. 

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.  Shops in urban areas, for non-essential goods, are not allowed in malls, markets and market complexes.  However, all standalone (single) shops, neighbourhood (colony) shops and shops in residential complexes are permitted to remain open in urban areas, without any distinction of essential and non-essential.

E-Commerce activities, in the Red Zones, are permitted only in respect of essential goods.  Private offices can operate with upto 33% strength as per requirement, with the remaining persons working from home.  All Government offices will function with senior officers of the level of Deputy Secretary and above at full strength, and the remaining staff attending upto 33% as per requirement. 

However, Defense and Security services, Health and Family Welfare, Police, Prisons, Home Guards, Civil Defence, Fire and Emergency Services, Disaster management and related services, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Customs, Food Corporation of India (FCI), National Cadet Corps (NCC), Nehru Yuvak Kendra (NYK) and Municipal services will function without any restrictions; delivery of public services will be ensured and necessary staff will be deployed for such purpose.

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, e.g., sowing, harvesting, procurement and marketing operations in the agricultural supply chain are permitted.  Animal husbandry activities are fully permitted, including inland and marine fisheries.  All plantation activities are allowed, including their processing and marketing.  All health services (including AYUSH) are to remain functional, including transport of medical personnel and patients through air ambulances. 

A large part of the financial sector remains open, which includes banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), insurance and capital market activities, and credit co-operative societies.  Operation of homes for children, senior citizens, destitute, women and widows etc.; and operation of Anganwadis have also been permitted.  Public utilities, e.g., utilities in power, water, sanitation, waste management, telecommunications and internet will remain open, and courier and postal services will be allowed to operate. 

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.,

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 permitted.

What’s Permitted in Orange Zones

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

What’s Permitted in Green 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.

All goods traffic is to be permitted.  No State/ UT will stop the movement of cargo for cross land-border trade under Treaties with neighbouring 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. 

All other activities will be permitted activities, which are not specifically prohibited, or which are permitted with restrictions in the various Zones, under these guidelines. 

However, States/ UTs, based on their assessment of the situation, and with the primary objective of keeping the spread of COVID-19 in check, may allow only select activities from out of the permitted activities, with such restrictions as felt necessary.

No separate/ fresh permissions will be required from authorities for activities already permitted to operate under the guidelines on Lockdown measures up to May 3, 2020. The Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs) issued by MHA will continue to operate such as transit arrangement for foreign national(s) in India; release of quarantine persons; the movement of stranded labour within States/ UTs; sign-on and sign-off of Indian seafarers, movement of stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons by road and rail.