STOP FESTIVAL GATHERINGS, GOVT TELLS STATES
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday asked states to consider imposing local restrictions in public observance of the upcoming festivals and limit or do away with mass gatherings for effective control of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“...in view of upcoming festivals... consider imposing local restrictions and limit/do away with mass gatherings,” additional health secretary Arti Ahuja, in a letter to state chief secretaries, said.
NEW DELHI: It has been a year since India’s 1.3 billion people responded positively to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a ‘janata curfew’ to break the chain of novel coronavirus, which had then started to spread in some parts of the country.
Since the 14 hour-long ‘janata curfew’ on March 22, 2020, announced by Modi “for the people, by the people”, there has been no looking back in India’s fight against Covid-19 to control the virus which, as on Wednesday, has infected 1,17,34,058 people and claimed 1,60,441 lives. Modi subsequently announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown effective from the intervening night of March 24 and 25.
As the lockdown was announced suddenly, a humanitarian crisis emerged as thousands of people, mostly migrant workers, started returning to their homes on foot.
With stories and pictures of exhausted, hungry, thirsty people, who were desperate to reach homes even walking hundreds of kilometres, started appearing in media, government issued advisories to the state government to make arrangements for their food and shelter.
Delhi’s Nizamuddin was in the news for wrong reasons as it emerged as one of the coronavirus ‘hotspots’ after a large number of attendees at a religious congregation called ‘Tablighi Jaamat’ tested positive.
After three weeks, the lockdown was further extended till May 3 with the ever increasing number of Covid-19 cases.
On April 20, the MHA allowed the e-commerce, agriculture industry to resume functioning along with farm activities, construction of roads and buildings in the hinterland which has so far been less affected by Covid-19. On April 25, the government allowed shops, including those located in residential complexes within municipal areas, to remain open at a 50%strength.
From June 1, the MHA announced phased reopening process terming it as ‘Unlock-1’ with activities like visit to religious places, opening of hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services and shopping malls allowing to function from June 8, after 75 days of strict lockdown. From July 1, the central government announced ‘Unlock 2’ where limited domestic and international flights and train services allowed in calibrated way. The third phase of Unlock came into force from August 1 .
The central government allowed metro services to start from September 7, larger gatherings with 100 people allowed from September 21. After remaining shut for six months, schools located outside containment zones were partially allowed to reopen to enable students studying in classes 9 to 12 to visit their institutions on a voluntary basis.
On September 30, the MHA announced allowing more activities in areas outside the containment zones. On November 25, the MHA allowed the states and union territories to impose local restrictions like night curfew to check the spread of Covid-19 as many states witnessing spurt in coronavirus cases. On January 27, the government allowed cinema halls and theatres to operate with more people while swimming pools have been permitted for use by all.
As vaccination campaign has started, the MHA in a fresh advisory on 26 February advised the states and union territories to speed up the vaccination of the target population so as to break the chain of transmission.