India extends coronavirus lockdown for 2 more weeks from May 4 till 17

New Delhi: In order to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday (May 1) announced to extend the nationwide lockdown by another two weeks. As per the latest notification, the third phase of lockdown will be enforced until May 17.

The Home Ministry made the announcement today as lockdown 2.0 was coming to an end on May 3. 

The government took the decision after a comprehensive review, and in view of the lockdown measures having led to significant gains in the COVID-19 situation in the country. The Union Home Ministry issued an order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, on Friday to further extend the lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4.

The MHA has also issued specific guidelines to regulate different economic activities during 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 criteria for identification of districts as Red, Green and Orange Zones have been spelt out in detail in the letter dated April 30, 2020, issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
• The Green zone will be districts with either zero confirmed cases till date; or, no confirmed case in the last 21 days.  
• The classification of districts as Red zone 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. 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.

Under the new guidelines, a limited number of activities will remain prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zone. These include 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 the public. 

In Red zones and outside containment zones, certain activities including plying of cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, taxis and cab aggregators, intra-district and inter-district plying of buses and barber shops, spas and salons will be prohibited in addition to those prohibited throughout India.

However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for select purposes, and for purposes as permitted by MHA.

Earlier on March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a 21-day countrywide lockdown for the first time to break the chain of transmission of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The restriction was extended on April 14 for another 17 days. The current lockdown 2.0 is ending on May 3