Schools and colleges will remain closed till September 30, according to the guidelines. However, states and union territories may permit upto 50% of teaching and non teaching staff to be called to school for online teaching related work. This will only be allowed for areas outside the containment zones with effect from September 21.
Students of classes 9 to 12, said the Centre, may be permitted to visit their schools, in areas outside the Containment Zones only, on voluntary basis, for taking guidance from their teachers. This will be subject to written consent of their parents, the government added.
Metro services, suspended since March 22 in wake of the coronavirus outbreak, will be allowed to operate from September 7, according to the guidelines issued by the Centre Saturday on the fourth phase of ‘Unlock’. The Ministry of Home Affairs released the set of guidelines for ‘Unlock 4’ to be followed till September 30.
Cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres (excluding open air theatre) and similar places will continue to remain shut. International air travel is also not allowed.
Within the containment zones, strict perimeter control shall be maintained and only essential activities will be allowed.
The containment zones will be notified on the websites of the respective district collectors and by the states/UTs and information will also be shared with the Union home ministry.
The district authorities are advised to follow the guidelines to effectively break the chain of virus transmission. Strict containment measures will be enforced in these containment zones and only essential activities will be allowed, it said.
Guidelines for containment zones:
According to the order, lockdown in containment zones will remain imposed till 30 September, 2020. These virus containment zones need to be carefully demarcated by the state governments or UTs.
Within the perimeters of containment zones, strict social distancing and other norms of containing the spread of the virus shall be maintained and only essential activities will be allowed, MHA said in a statement.
These containment zones will be notified on the websites of respective district collectors of the states and UTs and activities taking place in these zones will be strictly monitored by the authorities.
However, State or UT governments shall not impose any local lockdown (State/ District/ sub-division/City/ village level), outside the containment zones, without prior consultation with the Central Government, the government said in a statement.
The use of Aarogya Setu app will be encouraged in the new unlock period.
India went under a complete nationwide lockdown from 25 March in order to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country. In an attempt to bring back normalcy, the MHA has been issuing a number of guidelines in its ‘Unlock India’ mission in order to provide relaxations in a graded manner and kickstart the economy.
Meanwhile, India’s Covid-19 tally raced past 34 lakh-mark on Saturday after states added a record 76,472 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data.
However, the number of recoveries surged to 26,48,998, pushing the recovery rate to 76.47%, according to the Union health ministry. Active cases rose to 7,52,424.
The total number of Covid-19 cases rose to 34,63,972, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 62,550 with 1,021 more people succumbing to it in a span of 24 hours, the ministry’s data showed.
