As the number of COVID-19 pandemic cases continues to increase day by day, there was near unity between all the chief ministers in extending the ongoing 21-day lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliberated with chief ministers on the extension of 21-day lockdown and, most states are in favor of extending the lockdown. The PM Modi said that earlier the objective was ‘Jaan hai to Jahan hai’ and this time it will be ‘’Jaan Bhi Jhaan Bhi’. With this new objective, it is expected that the government is moving towards smart lockdown, which implies severe limitations in affected districts, and partial lifting of limitations in unaffected districts, along with the opening up of some industry sectors to meet the economic crisis. It is also predicted that the government is considering dividing the country into three zones – red, orange and green – depending on the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak.

So what are these three zones and how will they impact economic activity in the country:

1. Red Zones- areas, where generous numbers of cases were detected or declared to be hotspots, would fall under the red zone and no move of public will be allowed.

 2. Orange zones- areas where several cases are found to be low and there is no increase in positive cases, the least activities will be open such as the opening of limited public transport and agriculture activities.

3. Green Zones- where there are no cases of COVID-19 there will be more relaxations such as MSME industries falling under the green zone will be allowed to function with proper maintenance of social distancing and in-house lodging facilities for employees.

It is difficult for both the central and state government to choose between, public health which demands to extend the lockdown to control the spread of the disease and the economy which is in crisis because of the closure of factory plants’ unstable trade, unsustainable business, and loss of jobs and incomes.

Information Source: https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1248993233889382400