Lockdown 5.0 : 13 cities may see stricter rules, more monitoring

New Delhi, May 30
India’s exit strategy from the fourth phase of the lockdown scheduled to end on Sunday could see new guidelines and comparatively stricter ones for 13 cities, which account for about 70% of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, officials have indicated.
The hints came during two meetings held on Thursday. The first meeting was chaired in the morning by Rajiv Gauba, the Union Cabinet Secretary, and the second by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The fresh guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for the extended lockdown will give powers to States to take strict measures as per their need but they will have to follow the ones issued by the Centre.
Guidelines on the management of Covid-19 in urban settlements have already been issued by the Centre. According to news agency PTI, the highlights of this strategy include work on high-risk factors, indices such as confirmation rate, fatality rate, doubling rate, tests per million people etc.
The strategy defined the factors to be considered while mapping the containment and buffer zones, the activities mandated in containment zones like perimeter control, active search for cases through house-to-house surveillance, contact tracing, testing protocol, clinical management of the active cases.
The Nationwide lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 for three weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus infections. It was then extended till May 3 and again till May 17.
All the metros have been included in the Centre’s list of the 13 worst-hit areas of India. And, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have three cities each, Rajasthan has two cities each in that list.  Hindustan Times