Relying on the lockdown and restrictions as the possible ways to curb the spread of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Indian government has extended the lockdown for the fourth time and the current spell of the lockdown has come into effect on Monday - June 1st and will be in place till June 30, which is the biggest tenure of the lockdown period.

However, unlike the preceding ones, the current spell of the lockdown applies for the containment zones and the gradual relaxations for the non-containment zones across the country would be poured in a phased manner from June 8. With the view of mapping with the nationwide lockdown, the Tamil Nadu government has also extended the lockdown till June 30. This article takes a quick comparison of the fifth phase of the lockdown between Tamil Nadu and the Center.

According to the guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry, the Center has permitted the resumption of the religious places, places of worship, hotels, restaurants, other hospitality services, and shopping malls as the first phase of the relaxations in the non-containment zones from June 8 and the Center has stated that the Health Ministry would be issuing the Standard Operating Procedures for ensuring social distancing in these areas to contain the spread.

As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the state government hasn't permitted the resumption of the religious places. The hotels, resorts, hospitality services, and places of worship would remain closed in Tamil Nadu until further order from the state government - presumably, these services would remain suspended till June 30. The hospital services that accommodate the other states' people and the facilities of institutional quarantine can remain functional. 

The Center government has stated that there shall be no restrictions on inter and intra-state movements of people and commodities and there is no requirement for obtaining the e-pass or separate permission from the governments for these travels and movements. However, the Tamil Nadu government has mandated the requirement of e-pass for the travels between zones. The state government has created eight zones and roofed all the districts under the zones. 

The intra-zone travels can be permitted without the e-pass and for the inter-zone travels, people must obtain the e-pass failing which they would be barred from traveling. The Tamil Nadu government has refrained from resuming the metro rail and suburban train services in Chennai. The government has also restricted the resumption of shopping malls, educational and training institutions, and research labs as these services would remain closed till June 30.

The state government has prohibited the transportations within the states and the recreational centers like bars, clubs, cinema halls, gyms, and places of public gatherings aren't allowed to re-commence the services and the gatherings for religious, political, cultural, sports, and entertainment events have been barred. 

The Tamil Nadu government hasn't provided any relaxation to the Containment zones with accord to the guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry and the state government has consented the resumption of some of the activities as per the guidelines. The showrooms and big shops across the state, apart from Containment zones, have been permitted to re-open and it also has allowed small restaurants to offer 50% dining services without air conditioning facilities.

Groceries and provision stores can function in the state from 6 am to 8 pm, after the Center has revised the time limit in the night curfew. Earlier, the Center has restricted the movements of people from 7 pm to 7 am and now it has revised the restriction from 9 pm to 5 am, with providing exemptions for the essential and emergency services.  Although running for a whole month, the fifth phase of the lockdown would be pouring more relaxations than the preceding ones to pull out the country from the unprecedented experiment gradually. When the current phase came into effect, Tamil Nadu has recorded the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases by reporting 1,149 cases on Sunday taking the total tally to 22,333.

Must read: Center extends the nationwide lockdown till June 30 - What do you need to know?