Lockdown Phase 3: Dos and Don’ts in Red, Orange and Green zones

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued on Friday a fresh set of guidelines for the third phase of nationwide lockdown, which will remain in effective for two weeks from May 4.

Based on risk profiling, areas will be classified as Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zones. Considerable relaxations are permitted in Green and Orange Zones.

Criteria for Zones

The criteria for identification of districts as Red, Green and Orange Zones have been spelt out in the letter dated April 30, 2020, issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), GoI.

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 restrictions under the new guidelines issued under Disaster Management Act 2005 are as follows:

Prohibitions in all zones

• All forms of public transport - air, mail, metro and inter-state movement by road.

• 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 and sports complexes.

• Social, political, cultural, religious gatherings and all places of worship.

However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for select purposes, and for purposes as permitted by MHA.

Movement of all individuals for non-essential purposes will remain strictly prohibited between 7 PM to 7 AM. Local authorities are to issue appropriate orders under Section 144 CrPC for this purpose.

In all zones, persons above the age of 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 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.

RED ZONES

In Red Zones, outside the containment zones, certain activities are prohibited in addition to those prohibited throughout the country. These are:

• Plying of cycle rickshwas and autorickshaws.

• Running of taxis and cab aggregators.

• Intra-district and inter-district plying of buses.

• Barber shops, spas and saloons

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 SEZs, Export Oriented Units, industrial estates and industrial townships with access controls 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, neighborhood (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 are permitted only in respect of essential goods.

Private offices can operate upto 33% strength as per requirement, with remaining persons working from home.

All government offices can function with senior officers of the level of Deputy Secretary and above at full strength. However, Defence 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 shall function without any restrictions; delivery of public services shall be ensured and necessary staff will be deployed for such purpose.

Most of the commercial and private establishments have been allowed in the Red Zones. These included print and electronic media, IT and IT enabled services, private security and facility management services, and services provided by self-employed persons, except for barbers etc.

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, destitutes, women and widows etc.; and operation of Anganwadis has 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.

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.

ORANGE ZONES

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

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 up to 50% capacity.

Other Permitted activities

All goods traffic is to be permitted. No State/ UT shall 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, 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 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.

(Information Courtesy: Press Information Bureau)