NEW DELHI: Seeking to consolidate the gains made against the spread of Covid-19 and to address the recent spike in cases in some states and UT, the Home Office updated the guidelines calling for staggered times in city offices with a positivity rate higher than 10%.
the Center also gave states of freedom to impose local restrictions such as night curfews, depending on your assessment of the situation. Importantly, with crowded markets and weekly bazaars emerging as a top concern, the December guidelines have asked the Ministry of Health to issue standard operating procedures (SOPs) to regulate visitors who crowd the markets. SOPs must be “strictly enforced by states and UT.”
States and UT have been recommended to enforce social distancing in offices, both private and government. “In cities where the weekly case positivity rate is greater than 10%, the states and UTs involved should consider implementing staggered office hours, with a view to reducing employees who attend the office at the same time,” the guidelines said. .
Although the new regulations kept the limit of attendees to social, religious, entertainment, sports and cultural gatherings in closed spaces to 50% of the capacity of the room with a maximum limit of 200, they also allowed the states and UT to reduce this Limit more to 100 people or less, based on your evaluation. The MHA guidelines did not state the maximum number of guests or attendees allowed in open space meetings, they only said that this can be arranged with the size of the ground in mind.
The order allowed states and UT to consider administrative actions, including imposing appropriate fines, on those who do not wear masks in public places and at work.
The guidelines not only assign responsibility to the local district, police and municipal authorities to ensure compliance with prescribed containment measures, but it also required state and UT governments to guarantee the accountability of officials. While local restrictions may be imposed, local closures require permission from the Center.
The new rules allow all previously permitted activities outside the containment zones, with restrictions. These include international air travel allowed by the MHA, movie theaters and theaters with up to 50% capacity, swimming pools for athlete training only, and business-to-business exhibitions.
Noting that the number of active cases in the country had steadily fallen from more than 10 lakhs of cases on September 18 to less than 4.5 lakhs, the ministry said cases were increasing in some states and UT in recent weeks. . He said the need of the moment was to maintain caution and strictly follow the prescribed containment strategy focused on surveillance, containment and strict adherence to guidelines.
For containment zones, MHA regulations prescribed intensive house-to-house surveillance by special teams, aggressive testing, contact listing, along with tracking, identification, quarantine, and contact tracking for 14 days, with 80% contacts to be traced. in 72 hours followed by rapid isolation of Covid-19 patients.
The guidelines seek to encourage organizations and business entities with 50 or more employees to take advantage of the Aarogya Setu OpenAPI service, saying this will make it easier for them to return to work in a Covid-19 free environment.
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