• Cinema halls to operate with over 50% capacity; swimming pools to be opened for all
  • The new guidelines will be effective from February 1 to February 28.

The Government of India has given permission that now all kind of exhibitions can be held anywhere for which the department of commerce will issue new procedures. Earlier, only B2B exhibitions were given permission by the government. The new guidelines will be effective from February 1 to February 28. The Centre on Wednesday, 27th Jan 2021, issued new Covid-19 guidelines also allowed swimming pools to be opened for all and cinema halls to have greater seating capacity than 50 per cent being allowed till now, for which separate standard operating procedure (SOPs) will be issued by the sports and information ministries respectively. Only sportspersons had access to swimming pools till now.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) also asked the civil aviation ministry to further open up international air travel in consultation with it. Air travel was being allowed as of now under the Air Bubble agreements with various countries and the Vande Bharat scheme.The government also removed the capping on the number of people who could be part of a social, cultural, religious, and political or sports gathering, which until now were limited to a maximum of 50% of the hall capacity, with a ceiling of 200 people in closed spaces; and keeping of the size of the ground/ space in view. The states and union territories have been given freedom to prepare their own SOPs in this regard.