Several messages are going viral on different social media about the reopening of cinema halls from October 1. Some reports claim that cinema halls are all set to open from October 1 as per the order from the Home Ministry. They state the cinema halls will be reopened adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

The reports also claimed that the government will make an announcement about this matter in the next unlock guidelines.

As per the reports, the standard operating procedures had issued for the reopening of cinema halls. These include leaving alternative seats and a gap of three seats in the same row with capping on maximum seating capacity.

Cinema hall owners have been requesting the government to allow them to reopen, as many such places like gyms and yoga centres have been allowed to open.  They urged the government to allow them to reopen cinema halls by the Dussehra weekend in October as they have been closed for over six months.

In such a situation, the media reports came out and went viral.

Several people believed the reports and are expecting the reopening of cinema halls from October 1.

However, the media reports are not true, and the Home Ministry has not taken any decision on allowing the cinema halls to reopen.

Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Twitter said that this claim is fake and no decision has been taken by the Home Ministry on this.

The SOPs are prepared by consulting with the Ministry of Health, but the decision has not yet taken by the Ministry.

To control the spreading of fake news and misinformation, especially those related to government’s policies and schemes spreading various social media platforms in the country, the PIB launched fact-checking arm in December 2019.

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