The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday extended its existing guidelines for surveillance, containment and caution against the coronavirus disease till January 2021 even as it stressed there has been a “continuous decline” in the number of active cases of Covid-19 in India.
The guidelines include Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for various places, protocols for human behavior during the pandemic (wearing face masks, use of sanitizer and social distancing,) COVID-19 containment measures, regulations at workplace, guidelines of safe travel inter state and intra state.
The MHA also asked the government of states and UTs to ensure strict COVID-19 guidelines in the containment zones. The respective state government would decide the containment zones in their state/UTs.
Speaking of activities allowed in containment zones, the MHA said only essential activities like medical emergencies, essential communities and necessary services would be allowed.
The local district authority, police and municipal authorities would be responsible to ensure that the prescribed containment measures are strictly followed.
The accountability of concerned officers would be ensured by the states/UTs government.
Surveillance teams would conduct intensive house to house surveillance and quick isolation of COVID-19 patients at home or institutional care.
In addition, under the fresh guidelines, the MHA also allowed states to impose local restrictions, including night curfews and other restrictions if needed.
However, the state/UT governments could not impose any local lockdown, outside the containment zones, without prior consultation with the Central Government.
The new guidelines would not dismiss the past unlock phases which allows functioning of restaurants, theatres, swimming pools, religious places, malls, educational institutions, air travel, railways and other allowed services as per SOPs.
The new COVID-19 guidelines issued by the MHA would be in effect from the 1st of January and would continue till the 31st of January.
