The first stage is to come into effect on 8 June, when restaurants, hotels, shopping centres and places of worship will be allowed to re-open in many areas.
This is to be followed by the resumption of school in July, in consultation with state governments.
#MinistryOfHomeAffairs on Saturday issued fresh guidelines to reopen the country in phased manner as the #LockDown 4.0 draws to an end on May 31.
— Capt. Prashant tuteja (@capttuteja) May 30, 2020
However, the #LockDown will continue in the containment zones till June 30.
Here is WHAT will OPEN & from WHEN 🙏 #UnlockIndia pic.twitter.com/PPeqEuunQ0
However, cinemas, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, auditoriums and similar places will remain shut until the third phase, for which a date has not yet been set.
"Based on the feedback, a decision on the re-opening of these institutions will be taken in July,” a home ministry official told RFI.
New cases hit single-day high
Within areas that remain under containment, strict perimeter control will be maintained and only essential activities will be allowed.
The announcement on opening up further sectors came as India registered its highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases on Sunday, with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours. The country's now has 182,143 cases, with the death toll rising to 5,164, according to the health ministry.
India has now overtaken Turkey as the ninth worst-hit country in terms of total number of cases.
“It is because of the earlier lockdown that we were able to prevent between 37,000 and 78,000 deaths,” V.K.Paul, who heads the government’s medical emergency management plan, told RFI.
“Various mathematical modelling studies ordered by the government show that we averted anywhere from 1.4 to 2. 9 million cases.”
'Hope' in lower fatalities
A majority of active cases are in five states – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh – and more than 60 per cent of the cases are in five cities, including Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, according to official data.
Experts say keeping fatalities down by focussing on health care facilities will now be the most crucial strategy.
So even as Covid cases go up steeply every day, religious places, shopping malls&Hotels are set to open from June 8! After destroying the economy&jobs of >10Crs, making migrants walk home, killing 100s, the govt quietly withdraws the Lockdown w/o even saying sorry, we messed up!
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) May 30, 2020
“With a fatality rate, which at 2.8 per cent is much lower than the global 6 per cent, there is hope that the outbreak...may not be as deadly as it has been in many countries, perhaps highlighting some of the gains from the nationwide lockdown,” said Randeep Guleria, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
'Lockdown 4.0'
Nationwide restrictions were first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has been subsequently extended four times.
Modi marked the first anniversary of his second term on Saturday with an open letter to citizens, asserting that India has started traversing on the path to "victory" in its long battle against Covid-19, while acknowledging "tremendous suffering" of migrant workers among others.
Experts point out that vigil now has to be maintained by thousands of migrants travelling from their work places around the country to their hometowns and villages.
Infections of returning migrants have been noticed and a surge in infections could prove a problem as rural India is ill-equipped to deal with the challenge.
