Ficci for cut in quarantine period to 5 days

New Delhi: Industry body Ficci has suggested the government to reduce the quarantine period to 5 days for coronavirus-infected individuals, at least for those in home isolation, so as to minimise the impact on the economy in terms of manpower shortages.

In a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, the chamber has called for highly localised mobility restrictions on the basis of occupancy of hospital beds, especially critical care beds.

"Needless to mention, there should be a coordinated strategy at the national level with a view to balancing lives and livelihoods as any knee jerk reactions at the state, city and municipal level will not serve much purpose while threatening economic recovery," the letter dated January 12, said.

It has also asked for eliminating any distinction between essential and non-essential activities, and an overarching criteria of no hindrance to industrial activity if 75

per cent of a unit's workforce is fully vaccinated.

Further it has suggested the government to follow a graded approach in unlocking economic activities. It said that in high risk levels (over 60 per cent COVID bed occupancy of last one week), an isolation bubble must be implemented for export oriented units, and manpower restrictions should be limited to 50 per cent for services firms.

Manufacturing units of essential goods, and items that are significant to national security and defence should be allowed to operate in all risk level (minimal, low, medium, high) areas besides all essential services including banking, NBFCs, MFIs, fintech, communication, IT, and exports.

Social gatherings in marriages should be restricted to 50 individuals in case of medium risk and 20 in high risk, and for funerals, it should

be 20 only.