The Centre has retained cinema halls, swimming pools and entertainment parks in the list of prohibited activities in the Unlock 4.0 guidelines issued on Saturday, August 29. Any decision on the reopening cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks likely will be made in September end factoring in the COVID-19 situation, sources told CNBC-TV18.

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As part of the Unlock 4.0 guidelines released by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Centre has relaxed the ban on serving liquor, allowing restaurant and hotels to resume operations. The guidelines and standard operating procedures (SoPs) in this regard, however, will be issued by the states. The move comes as the MHA also eased the consumption of liquor, paan, gutkha and tobacco in public places under Unlock 4.0.

In the previous phases of Unlock guidelines, the home ministry kept the consumption of liquor, paan, gutkha, tobacco in public space in the prohibited list. With these restrictions lifted in the Unlock 4.0, now restaurants, bars, hotels will be able to serve liquor.

Coming into effect today, the MHA further issued new guidelines for opening up of more activities in areas outside the Containment Zones in the Unlock 4.0 phase.

The MHA said there shall be no restriction on inter-State and intra-state movement of persons and goods. No separate permission or e-permit will be required for such movements.

The central government allowed metro rail services to operate in a graded manner from September 7.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 caseload neared the 37 lakh mark on Tuesday, surging by 69,921 new cases to a total of 36,91,166. The number of recoveries surged to 28,39,882, pushing the recovery rate to 76.94 percent, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll, meanwhile, climbed to 65,288 with 819 new fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The COVID-19 case fatality rate has declined further and now stands at 1.77 percent.

There are 7,85,996 active cases which constitute 21.29 percent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23.

Also, catch all the latest updates and developments on the coronavirus pandemic and the Unlock 4.0 with CNBC-TV18.com's blog

First Published:Sept 1, 2020 4:58 PM IST