Centre Allows States To Impose Night Curfew, Prior Consultation Must For Any Lockdown

States and UTs allowed to consider administrative actions to enforce wearing of face masks

NEW DELHI: In fresh guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the states and Union Territories have been allowed to take their decisions on imposition of local restrictions like night curfew to check the spread of Covid-19.

However, as per the fresh guidelines, the states and UTs will have to consult the Centre before imposing any lockdown outside the containment zones.

While issuing guidelines for “Surveillance, Containment and Caution” for December, the MHA also said that the listing of contacts shall be carried out in respect of all persons found positive, along with their tracking, identification, quarantine and follow up for 14 days and 80 percent of contacts should be traced within 72 hours.

Quick isolation of COVID-19 patients shall be ensured in treatment facilities and home, subject to fulfilling the home isolation guidelines, and clinical interventions, as prescribed, shall be administered, the guidelines said.

The ministry said that the state and UT governments shall take all necessary measures to promote COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and to ensure strict enforcement of wearing of face masks, hand hygiene and social distancing.

To enforce the core requirement of wearing of face masks, states and UTs may consider administrative actions, including the imposition of appropriate fines on persons not wearing face masks in public and workspaces it said.

The MHA said the main focus of the directive is to consolidate the substantial gains which are visible in the steady decline in the number of active cases in the country.

The guidelines said that keeping in view the recent spike in new cases in a few states and UTs, ongoing festival season and onset of winter, it is emphasised that to fully overcome the pandemic there is a need to maintain caution and strictly follow the prescribed containment strategy.

The containment strategy should be focussed on surveillance, containment and strict observance of the guidelines and SOPs issued by the MHA and the Ministry of Health, they said.