MHA releases new and stricter guidelines for containment zones

NEW DELHI: Ministry of Home Affairs released a set of new guidelines for surveillance and containment of COVID-19 on November 25. The new norms will be in effect from December 1, 2020, until December 31, 2020. The ministry has asked states and Union Territories to ensure demarcation of containment zones by the district authorities.

The fresh norms guide strict perimeter control of containment zones to ensure zero movements of people in or out of them, except for medical emergencies and for maintaining the supply of essential goods and services. The MHA has said that surveillance teams will need to be deployed to conduct intensive house-to-house surveillance to ensure isolation of COVID-19 patients in treatment facilities or home.

The government of India has also allowed states to impose local restrictions, night curfews, if necessary, to restrict the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, the states cannot impose any lockdown in the whole city at once, outside the containment zones, without prior consultation with the central government.

The ministry has asked states to consider staggered timings at workplaces to ensure social distancing, especially in cities where the weekly case positivity rate is more than 10 per cent. It added that the main focus of the guidelines is to consolidate the substantial gains that have been achieved against the pandemic, which the minister said is visible in the steady decile in the number of active cases in the country.