India Extends Lockdown until may 17

Central government has extended lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus  for 14 more days. Therefore the  lock down will remain till May 17. The government also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in this period, based on the risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zones. The guidelines have permitted considerable relaxation in the districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in an order released Friday.

“After a comprehensive review, and in view of the Lockdown measures having led to significant gains in the COVID-19 situation in the country, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India (GoI) issued an Order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, today, to further extend the Lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4, 2020,” the order stated.

“The classification of districts into Red, Green and Orange Zones will be shared by MoHFW with the States and Union Territories (UTs) on a weekly basis, or earlier, as required. While States and UTs can include additional districts as Red and Orange Zones, they may not lower the classification of a district included by MoHFW in the list of Red or Orange Zones,” the MHA also said.

The Green Zones will be districts with either zero confirmed cases so far or no confirmed case in the last 21 days.”The classification of districts as Red Zones will take into account the total number of active cases, doubling rate of confirmed cases, extent of testing and surveillance feedback from the districts. Those districts, which are neither defined as Red nor Green, shall be classified as Orange zones,” MHA also said.

Meanwhile,According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the number of coronavirus cases as on 5 PM on May 1 reached 35,365. This includes 25,148 active cases, 1,152 deaths, 9,064 cured and discharged patients and 1 migrated patient. India saw 1,755 new COVID-19 cases and 77 deaths in the past 24 hours.

MHA issues order to further extend #lockdown for 2 weeks beyond 04.05.2020, to fight #Covid_19.
New guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in #Lockdown3 restrictions, within the districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones. pic.twitter.com/hkp6NHaCjq

— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) May 1, 2020