COVID-19 lockdown extended by two weeks from May 4 to May 17, says India's Home Ministry

• Travel by rail, air, metro and even inter-state movement by road will continue to be restricted.
  
• Schools, colleges and other educational institutions will remain closed.
• There will be zone-wise relaxations for areas that fall into the orange or green zones.
  

The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced that the nationwide lockdown in India has been extended by another two weeks. Instead of relaxations kicking in on May 3 — the lockdown regulation will remain in place until May 17. The decision has been made after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers and other top government functionaries met yesterday (April 30).

Travel by rail, air, metro and even inter-state movement by road will continue to be restricted. Schools, colleges and other educational institutions will remain closed. This means the supply of goods and services across state lines will not be able to restart. Gyms, malls, hotels will also remain shut.


There will be zone-wise relaxations for areas that fall into the orange or green identification. The criteria for how these zones will be determined was shared earlier by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoFHW). Metro zones which include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad will have been identified as red zones going forward.

Movement of individuals for all non-essential activities will be strictly prohibited between 7 am to 7 pm. Buses in green zones will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity.


Many of Indian industrialists like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Naveen Jindal, and Sachin Bansal had called for the economy to reopened at the earliest but the government has decided to side with caution.

India reported 1,755 new coronavirus cases and 77 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 35,365. The active COVID-10 case stood at 25,148, while 9,064 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated.

According to Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, the country’s recovery rate is currently at 25% with a mortality rate of 3.2%.

See also: These are the green, orange and red zones in India