Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla and secretary of the ministry of health and family welfare on Saturday jointly reviewed the measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country’s union territories (UTs).
The review by the top union ministry officials to check the measures adopted was done for UTs namely Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu through video conferencing on Saturday.
During the virtual meeting, senior officials from these union territories briefed the two secretaries about several steps taken by them to combat the spread of Covid-19 such as isolation of infected patients, availability of doctors, para-medical staff and testing management of positive cases.
The secretaries advised the officials to ramp up testing facilities, ensure proper surveillance for early detection of cases along with other measures such as social distancing, regular sanitization, wearing of masks etc.
Meanwhile, the Centre issued guidelines for Unlock 4 which will come into effect from September 1 with an aim to open more economic activities outside the containment zones.
A home ministry release stated that the fresh guidelines are based on feedback received from states and UTs along with consultations held with several central ministries and departments.
As per the guidelines, metro rail services are allowed to resume in a graded manner from September 7 and all public gatherings- political, social, religious – will be allowed with crowds of not more than 100 people.
However, educational institutions and coaching centres along with movie halls, swimming pools and similar places will continue to remain closed till September 30.
Earlier, Union home secretary Bhalla wrote to chief secretaries of states and UTs asking them to not impose any local lockdown outside containment zones without prior consultation with the Centre.
According to the union health ministry’s dashboard, India’s Covid- 19 tally on Friday went over 3.4 million after 76,472 cases and 1,021 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours. The total cases include 752,424 active cases, nearly 2.7 million recoveries and 62,550 deaths.
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