All COVID-19 restrictions across India to end from 31st March, only masks to stay as cases dip throughout the nation
MHA will finally be waiving off the Disaster Management Act (2005).
As the country is witnessing a consistent negative slope in the graph of Covid-19 cases, the home ministry on Wednesday decided to end its all containment measures from March 31 including the Disaster Management Act. However, masks will still have to be worn in public places.
The Union government had on March 24, 2020 issued for the first time, orders and guidelines under the Disaster Management Act, (DM Act) 2005 for the containment of COVID-19 in the country and these have been modified on various occasions.
In a communication to the chief secretaries of all states, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said that over the last 24 months, significant capacities have been developed for various aspects of management of the pandemic, such as diagnostics, surveillance, contact tracing, treatment, vaccination, hospital infrastructure.
“After taking into consideration the overall improvement in the situation and preparedness of the government to deal with the pandemic, the NDMA has taken a decision that there may not be any further need to invoke the provisions of the DM (Disaster Management) Act,” Bhalla said.
The Centre’s decision comes at a time when cases of BA.2-a sub variant of Omicron are rising in China, South Korea, Vietnam, France and Germany.
However, India is much better placed to deal with the disease. India’s vaccination campaign has been going strong, with over 1,81,89,15,234 people vaccinated till Wednesday, March 23.
Reducing the dosage interval for Covishield, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) has said the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine can now be taken eight to 16 weeks after the first shot.
Experts in India feel that given the high vaccination coverage and immunity due to natural infection, any future waves are unlikely to have a major impact in the country. Some of them even said that the government should consider relaxing the mask mandate as the daily COVID-19 cases and deaths have remained low for a while.
