Nationwide Lockdown Extended To Two More Weeks Till 17 May By MHA

The nationwide lockdown that was supposed to end on 3 May has been extended to two more weeks by Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday. The lockdown will now be in place till 17 May.

However, there can be many relaxations to be seen this time and will not be as restrictive and strict as the First and second version of it. It will likely to depend on the state government and the COVID-19 situation in various districts.

The zones which are classified on the basis of COVID-19 cases are Green, orange and red. The Green Zones are the districts with either zero confirmed cases till date; or, no confirmed case in the last 21 days.

Red zones are the ones with high level of frequency in COVID-19 cases. This depends on the doubling rate of confirmed cases, the extent of testing and surveillance feedback from the districts.

Those districts, which are neither defined as Red nor Green, are classified as Orange zones.

MHA has also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities during the period of extended lockdown and have permitted considerable relaxations in the districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones.

However, services and activities like travel by air, rail, metro and inter-State movement by road; running of schools, colleges, and other educational and training/ coaching institutions; hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants; places of large public gatherings, such as cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes etc; social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings; and, religious places/ places of worship for public have been prohibited.

Meanwhile, the total cases in India has reached to 35,365 and death being at 1,152.