New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry issued guidelines of the unlock 2.0 on Monday under the Disaster Management Act 2006. The Government in its press guidelines stated that the lockdown shall continue to be strictly implemented in all containment zones to July 31^st.

The Government imposed restrictions even as opening of schools and colleges, international passenger flights, Metro Rail services, Cinema halls, Gyms as well as social, political and religious congregation upto July 31^st.Further the Government relaxed the night curfew timings to between 10 pm and 5 am instead of 9 pm to 5 am earlier. Relaxations in night curfew have been given for seamless operations of industrial units in multiple ships, movement of persons and goods on national and state highways, loading and unloading of cargo and movement of persons to their destinations after disembarking from buses, trains and flights, said the Home Ministry in a press release.

Another important change in the relaxations, there should be no restrictions on inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods and no separate permission/ approval/ e- permit will be required for such movement. The unlock 2.0 which the MHA said seek to open up more activities in areas outside containment zones, have lifted the restriction of five people at time in all shops. Depending on their area, they can now have more people at a time. However, they will have to maintain adequate physical distance between the shoppers. The national directives on Covid- 19 management continue to require mandatory wearing of face covers in public places, work places and during transport. Also, as per the new norms the Health Ministry will monitor proper delineation of containment zones and implementation of containment measures.

This was left to the states/ UT administrations under unlock 1.0 guidelines. The Home Ministry in its guidelines said dates for restarting all activities barred in non-containment zones till July 31^st may be decided separately based on assessment of the situation and necessary SOP may be issued for ensuring social distancing and to contain the spread of Covid- 19. The schools, colleges and educational and coaching institutions would not be re-opened before July 31^st.