BHOPAL: Though the Madhya Pradesh government has approved a phase-wise unlocking of the "corona curfew" restrictions beginning June 1, the weekend lockdown will continue to be in force across the state, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Saturday.
There will be separate sets of unlocking guidelines for the places having the COVID-19 positivity rate above five per cent and below 5 per cent, Chouhan told a meeting of the crisis management groups at the village, block, ward and district level in a televised address in the evening.
The weekend curfew from 10 PM on Saturdays to 6 AM on Mondays will continue irrespective of unlocking of coronavirus-induced curbs, he said.
"Based on these guidelines and local COVID-19 situation and circumstances, the crisis management committees at the district, ward, block and village levels will take decisions about unlocking theirrespective areas from June 1," Chouhan said.
The CM asked the crisis management committees to hold a meeting on Sunday to take a decision.
Chouhan said cultural, political, social, sports, fairs and entertainment activities will not be allowed.
He said school, colleges, educational institutions, cinema halls, shopping malls, theatre, auditoriums and picnic spots will continue to remain closed.
Chouhan also said that Morena district crisis management committee has already decided to continue the "corona curfew" given the spike in COVID-19 cases.
On Saturday, the state government came up with separate guidelines for villages falling under the green zone (zero active cases), 'yellow' zone (four or less than four active cases) and 'red' zone (five or more than five cases).
There would be stricter guidelines for the red zone.
Similarly, the coronavirus-induced restrictions will continue in those urban areas where the positivity rate is more than five per cent.
As per the guidelines, the number of people attending a marriage is capped at 10 from each side (total 20).
It is mandatory to furnish the list of guests to the local administration in advance.
A maximum number of 10 people can participate in a funeral procession.
Not more than four people will be allowed to worship at religious places in the state.
Government offices, except those involved in essential activities, will be allowed to run in the presence of 50 per cent of employees and 100 per cent of officers.
Gathering more than six people at any place will not be allowed.
Industrial activities, hospitals, nursing homes, petrol pumps, pharmacies, ration shops, agricultural activities etc will be allowed during the unlocking phase.
Taxis will be allowed to ply with two persons but they need to follow the COVID-19 guidelines.
The COVID-19 case tally in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday rose to 7,77,349 with 1,640 fresh cases of infection coming to light, the state health department said.
Death toll reached 7,959 with 68 new fatalities.
This was the third consecutive day when less than 2,000 cases were reported in the state.
Further, the state has been reporting less than 3,000 cases for six straight days.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said that the case positivity rate was now 2.1 per cent while the recovery rate was above 95 per cent.
As many as 4,995 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the count of recoveries in the state to 7,38,491, the department said.
With 504 new cases, Indore's caseload went up to 1,48,952, while that of Bhopal rose to 1,20,363 with addition of 324 cases.
With four and three deaths, the toll in Indore and Bhopal rose to 1,335 and 931, respectively.
Indore is now left with 5,207 active cases while Bhopal has 7,561 such cases.
The active cases in the entire state stand at 30,899.
With 75,933 new tests, the total of samples tested for coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh crossed 97.42 lakh.
Madhya Pradesh has recorded 2,14,022 coronavirus cases and 2,343 fatalities in May so far.
Coronavirus figures of MP are as follows: Total cases 7,77,349, new cases 1,640, death toll 7,959, recovered 7,38,491, active cases 30,899, number of tests so far 97,42,593.