New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister announced extension of the ongoing restrictions till May 3, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines for containing the novel coronavirus during the lockdown 2.0.
It stated that digital economy was critical to the services sector and important for national growth. “Accordingly, e-commerce operations, operations of IT and IT enabled services, data and call centres for government activities, and online teaching and distance learning are all permitted activities now,” it added.
All health services will also remain functional during this period.
They include
- Hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, telemedicine facilities.
- Dispensaries, chemists, pharmacies, all kinds of medicine shops including Jan Aushadhi Kendras and medical equipment shops.
- Medical laboratories and collection centres.
- Pharmaceutical and medical research labs, institutions carrying out COVID-19 related research.
- Veterinary Hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, pathology labs, sale and supply of vaccine and medicine.
- Authorised private establishments, which support the provisioning of essential services, or efforts for containment of COVID-19, including home care providers, diagnostics, supply chain firms serving hospitals.
- Manufacturing units of drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical oxygen, their packaging material, raw material and intermediates.
- Construction of medical/ health infrastructure including manufacture of ambulances.
- Movement (inter and intra State, including by air) of all medical and veterinary personnel, scientists, nurses, para-medical staff, lab technicians, mid-wives and other hospital support services, including ambulances.