Limited Lockdown 5.0 on cards; malls, Metro may be back Focus on 11 cities with rising cases, more testing in rural areas
Lockdown 5.0 for two weeks with stringent curbs in 11 cities that account for 70% of Covid-19 positive cases and a massive focus on ramping up testing in rural areas is on the anvil.
This will be accompanied by substantial easing of restrictions in most parts of the country and further opening up of transport services like metro and buses, according to government sources.
Shopping malls, which have remained closed, could be opened in green zones but the government is still weighing the rise in the number of cases.
In the Lockdown 5.0, the focus will be on active and aggressive containment in 11 cities with high spread — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune, Thane, Jaipur, Surat and Indore. In Lockdown 5.0 the perimeter of restricted areas in containment zones could be reduced.
The thrust of Lockdown 5.0 is containing the pandemic spread in villages after reverse migration from metros. During his last interaction with CMs, Modi had said the effort should be to stop the spread of the virus to rural areas.
Lockdown 5.0, Page 4
