Global Covid-19 cases topped 33 million as infections in India reached the 6 million mark. The official death toll from Covid-19 neared one million, though experts say the real tally may be almost double that. As many as 9.96 lakh have succumbed to the infection across the globe.
With the fourth stage of lockdown drawing to an end, the Union Home Ministry will soon be announcing a slew of relaxations for October. Earlier, in a key development, the MHA had allowed metro trains to resume services.
The ministry had also said that more curbs would be eased in the coming days and activities would slowly be permitted in areas outside the containment zones.
In the recent meeting with chief ministers of the seven worst-affected states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the CMs that steps must be taken to implement the idea of “micro-containment” zones. The prime minister also advised the chief ministers of these states, which included Delhi too, to refrain from imposing lockdowns and curfews for one or two days a week.
Following are the sectors on which guidelines are expected during the Unlock 5.0 phase:
Tourism
In the past two months, some tourist sites have been allowed to open, with some restrictions. For instance, in July, the Taj Mahal was allowed to open, with restrictions such as social distancing and a limit of 5,000 visitors at a time.
Cinema halls
As of now, the home ministry has only allowed open-air theatres to resume operations. However, on Saturday, the West Bengal government said that it will allow cinema halls to reopen and also allow music and dance performances from 1 October.
Academic activities
As part of the Unlock 4.0 guidelines, schools were allowed to partially reopen for students from Classes 9 to 12 from 21 September. However, the schools were allowed to remain open for students only on a voluntary basis to enable them to take guidance from their teachers.
Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government has made a big announcement to unlock state capital Raipur from tonight.
The administration has no intention of furthering the one-week lockdown. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Minister-in-charge Ravindra Chaubey with the district administration on Monday. Along with this, the administration has also released a new guideline.
From Tuesday, all shops in the capital will be open till eight o’clock at night.
