MHA announces Unlock-1 from June 1

New Delhi: The Centre on Saturday issued orders extending lockdown for one month beginning June 1 while going for considerable relaxations outside the containment zones. It called this new phase as "Unlock-1".

From malls, hotels, restaurants to places of worship, schools and colleges have all been allowed to open in a phased manner over the next couple of months. However, the states will have the freedom to decide the future course of action and may not open them or put suitable restrictions if they deem it necessary in order to keep the Corona outbreak in check, the new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs maintained.

It has also said that the Health ministry will issue a standard operating procedure for all these activities which are now being permitted. According to the guidelines, night curfew shall remain in operation but its timings have been changed from 7 pm-7 am to 9 pm-5 am.

As India's COVID-19 death toll crossed the 5,000-mark on Saturday and the case count reached 1.76 lakh after a record spike in numbers of new cases and fatalities, the Centre has initiated a phased exit from the over-two-months-long nationwide lockdown.

States and Union Territories will be allowed to impose additional curbs as per the ground situation about the pandemic, which has had a huge economic cost as well mainly due to the lockdown bringing most business activities to a standstill.

Some states said they would extend the lockdown by 2-4 weeks to save the lives of the people, but also announced some relaxations to revive the economy.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh announced a four-week extension of the lockdown in the state till June 30.

In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the lockdown in the state to contain Covid will be extended till June 15.

The West Bengal government extended the lockdown by two more weeks till June 15 but also announced some conditional relaxations June 1 onwards.

In Mizoram also, the lockdown will continue for two more weeks to curtail the virus spread, the state's health minister R Lalthangliana said.

The Union Home Ministry said a night curfew will be in place from 9 pm to 5 am, except for essential services, and everyone will have to follow social distancing and hygiene-related guidelines including on wearing of face covers.

There would be no restriction on movement of people and goods within or between states from June 1 itself, while places of worship, hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will be allowed to open from June 8.

Schools, colleges and other educational institutions would be opened in the next phase after consultation with state and other local authorities as well as parents and other stakeholders. A decision on reopening these institutions would be taken in July.

The third phase would focus on re-starting international flights, Metro services, cinema halls, theatres, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, bars, auditoriums and assembly halls, as also large congregations for social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural and religious functions. The dates for allowing these activities would be decided later after assessing the situation.

The ministry advised persons above 65 years of age, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 years, to stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes.

Issuing additional directives, the fresh guidelines advocated 'Work from Home' (WFH) as far as possible besides staggering of work hours.