Coronavirus lockdown extended for two more weeks till May 17

The government on Friday announced an extension of nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus crisis for two more weeks beyond May 3. 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, India recorded 1,993 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest 1-day jump, taking the total tally of confirmed cases to 35,043 on Friday, according to the latest update by the Union Health Ministry. These cases include 25,007 active cases, 8,888 cured or discharged, 1 migrated and 1,147 deaths.

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Also read: Coronavirus lockdown 3.0: Will your area fall in 'red zone' post May 3? Check out district-wise full list