Centre Rules Out A National Lockdown; Directs States To Consider Containment Measures

The Government has ruled out the imposition of a national lockdown to contain the spread of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic's scathing second wave while issuing fresh guidelines under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 to bolster efforts to handle the situation, reports The Economic Times.

While ruling out the possibility of imposing a national lockdown, the Government has directed the States and the Union Territories (UTs) to consider containment measures as suggested by the Union Ministry of Health recently.

The order is likely to impact cities in 10 major states reporting a majority of cases including cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Lucknow.

This comes, as the Union Ministry of Health had last week asked the States and UTs to identify districts where positivity rate was more than ten per cent for a week, or where bed occupancy is more than 60 per cent. It had pushed for intensive and local containment measures in such districts.

The guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs shall remain effective till 31 May for now.