With few days left when the lockdown of India ends, citizens are curious that whether the lockdown will be revoked or it will be extended. Most are speculating that the lockdown will be extended, however, the government has been conducting daily meetings on strategies of hoe India can revoke the lockdown. Many strategic proposals have been presented to the government one of them which attracts the most is of the Medical Emergency Management Plan.
The Medical Emergency Management Plan is a NITI Aayog group constituted by the home ministry, is headed by Niti Aayog member Vinod Paul. During the meeting, it proposed the government to divide the states into four categories based on the severity of the outbreak. The plan proposed four stages.
Stage 1: A state with less than five active cases or with no new case in seven days will be placed in stage 1. As per reports, states coming under this category will be free from lockdown after April 14. Puducherry, Jharkhand, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mizoram and Tripura come under this category.
Stage 2: Less than 20 cases and with no new case in seven days will come under stage 2. States like Goa, Chattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh
Stage 3: Greater than or equal to 20 but less than 50. States like Assam, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Odisha comes under this.
Stage 4: Greater than or equal to 50 COVID-19 cases.
‘No Final Decision Yet’
A state reporting more than or equal to 50 active cases will be put in stage 4; a state with less than five active cases or with no new case in seven days will be placed in stage 1, says the document.
As per Vinod Paul, the government is looking at various studies and recommendations but has not taken any decision yet on the post-April 14 scenarios. “We are looking at various options, and a rational decision about the continuation of the lockdown or non-continuation will be dependent on various factors,” he said
The proposal also suggests elderly people should be confined to homes and inter-state travel should be restricted. It suggests that the districts with maximum positive cases should be isolated completely. While it suggests that factories can be opened in unaffected areas, the proposal comes with a caveat: “No interstate movement of labour should be allowed to facilitate the functioning of these establishments.” The movement of people will be strictly controlled in the worst-hit states and districts, while people in the stage 0 and stage 1 areas will have more freedom of movement.