The Maharashtra government has announced a five-level plan to unlock various cities and districts in the state based on the Covid positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds.
As per the state order, every Thursday, the Public Health Department will declare the positivity rate and oxygen beds occupation percentage for each district. The district management authorities, after disaggregating these parameters for various administrative units in its jurisdiction, shall decide which level of restrictions should be imposed in their administrative units in their units.
The restriction level, if there is any change, will come into effect from the following Monday.
In the case of Mumbai and Mumbai suburbs, for which Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the disaster management authority, the civic body will decide the level of unlock based on positivity rate and occupancy of the oxygen beds.
In districts such as Thane, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, and Solapur with more than one municipal corporation, the district disaster management has to work with the corporations to decide the unlock level based on positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy of each.
A question that has been left unaddressed in the 18 page notification is, which of the two parameters should be given more weightage in deciding the level, especially if the two are in different ranges.
The government may issue a clarification on this soon.
Here are the five levels and what is allowed in these categories:
LEVEL 1
Cities and districts with less than 5 per cent positivity rate and less than 25 per cent occupancy of oxygenated beds will fall in this category.
Cities and areas in this level include: Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Chandrapur, Dhule, Gondia, Jalgaon, Jalna, Latur, Nagpur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Yavatmal.
What is allowed:
* Shops and malls will be allowed to operate as per pre-lockdown timings.
* Restaurants, local trains, and parks will also be operational.
* Private and government offices, sports activities, shooting, marriages, funerals, society meetings, elections, construction, agriculture, e-commerce, gyms, salons, spas, buses, cargo movement, inter-district transport (except if passing through containment zones) and manufacturing can go back to normal operations.
LEVEL 2
Cities and areas having less than 5 per cent positivity and oxygenated bed occupancy between 25 and 40 per cent will come under this category.
Areas and districts in this level include: Hingoli and Nandurbar.
What is allowed:
* There will be curbs on attendance in closed places and group movements.
* Timings for essential and non-essential shops will be regular.
* Malls, theatres, and single screens will be allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity.
* Restaurants will operate at 50 per cent dining capacity and trains will be for specified categories.
* Parks, private and government offices can function regularly.
* Indoor games will be permitted from 5 am to 9 pm while outdoor games can take place the entire day.
* Shooting will happen at regular timings and there will be a 50 per cent cap on gatherings.
* There will be no cap on funerals.
* Society meetings and elections will happen at 50 per cent capacity.
* Construction, agriculture, e-commerce activities can go on as per regular timings.
* Gyms and salons can operate at 50 per cent capacity with prior appointment.
* Cargo movement can happen sans hindrance and there will be no standing passengers allowed in city buses. Inter-district travel will be regular and manufacturing will be allowed in full scale.
LEVEL 3
Cities and areas with positivity between 5 per cent and 10 per cent, or oxygenated bed occupancy more than 40 per cent will fall in the category.
This level includes: Mumbai, Akola, Amravati, Beed and Palghar.
What is allowed:
* There will be no movement post 5 pm.
* Shops can operate till 4 pm and malls, theatres, and single screens will remain closed.
* Restaurants can operate at 50 per cent dining capacity till 4 pm and thereafter be open for only deliveries.
* Local trains will operate only for people belonging to the essential services category.
* Public places and parks can remain open from 5 am to 9 pm.
* Private offices can be open on all days till 4 pm.
* Government office attendance will be restricted to 50 per cent.
* Sports activities will be allowed from 5 am to 9 am and 6 pm to 9 pm.
* Shooting will be allowed provided there’s a bio bubble and no outside movement will be permitted post 5 pm.
* Social gatherings will have 50 per cent attendance; marriages can have up to 50 persons and funerals can be attended by a maximum of 20 people. Society meetings and election rallies can have 50 per cent attendance.
* Construction sites will have in situ workers and no labourers will be allowed to step out after 4 pm.
* E-commerce activities will be operational.
* Salons and gyms will have 50 per cent capacity and clients will be allowed by appointments only.
* In public transport, no standing will be permitted.
* Manufacturing can happen regularly.
LEVEL 4
Areas having positivity between 10 per cent and 20 per cent, or having oxygenated bed occupancy of more than 60 per cent come under this.
Included are: Districts such as Kolhapur, Satara and Sindhudurg.
What is allowed:
* There will be no movement post 5 pm and additionally no movement on weekends as well except emergencies.
* Essential shops will be open till 4 pm while non-essentials will remain closed.
* Malls, theatres, single screens and auditoriums will be closed.
* Restaurants will have only takeaways.
* Local trains can be availed only by people belonging to the essential services category.
* Public places and parks will be open from 5 am to 9 pm.
* People belonging to the exempted category will only be allowed in private offices and government offices can operate at 25 per cent capacity.
* Outdoor sports will be allowed from 5 am to 9 pm on weekdays.
* Shooting will be allowed in bio bubbles and no movement will be allowed post 5 pm.
* People will also not be allowed to step out on weekends.
* Social gatherings will not be allowed and marriages shall not have more than 25 people. Only 20 people will be allowed to attend funerals. Meetings of societies and election rallies can be attended by only 50 per cent of the given capacity.
* Construction sites can operate only with in-house labourers. Agricultural activities will be allowed till 4 pm.
* E-commerce deliveries of essentials will be allowed.
* Salons and gyms will be allowed at 50 per cent capacity, and only for vaccinated customers.
* In public transport, only 50 per cent of passengers will be allowed.
* Manufacturing will happen at 50 per cent capacity as well.
LEVEL 5
These are areas having a positivity rate of more than 20 per cent, or having oxygenated bed occupancy of more than 75 per cent. This category is theoretical at the moment; there is not a single district or city that falls under this category as of now as per the government’s positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds ratio issued on June 3.
What is allowed:
* There will be no movement at all.
* Only essential shops will be allowed to operate till 4 pm. However, there will be no restrictions on medical shops.
* Non-essential shops, theatres, and malls will remain closed.
* Restaurants will be open only for deliveries.
* Trains can be availed only by medical personnel.
* Public parks will remain closed.
* Private offices will be operational only for people belonging to the exempted categories and government offices can have 15 per cent attendance.
* Shooting, sports, gatherings, won’t be permitted.
* Marriages can be attended only by family members. Funerals can have a maximum of 20 people and society meetings have to happen online.
* Construction will be allowed with on-site labour and agricultural shops will be allowed till 4 pm.
* Gyms and salons will be closed.
* Public transport can run at 50 per cent capacity. Cargo movement and inter-district movement will be allowed after e-passes are obtained.
* The manufacturing sector has been given the nod but with 50 per cent of the workforce.
Flyover wears a deserted look during COVID-induced lockdown in Nagpur. (PTI Photo) 
Share
