India’s COVID-19 restrictions to continue till May 17

Parts of India which are not seriously affected by Coronavirus infections will slowly emerge out of a 40-day nationwide lockdown on Monday.

But most of the 1.3 billion Indians are unlikely to notice much change in their day-to-day life for at least two additional weeks. This is because many of the restrictions which have been in force since March 25 to contain COVID-19 will continue to be enforced across the country.

In new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs here, all of India will be under a strict curfew from dusk to dawn daily. “Movement of individuals for all non-essential activities, shall remain strictly prohibited between 7pm to 7am,” the Ministry announced.

Travel by air, rail, metro and inter-state movement of people by road will continue to be prohibited everywhere in India. Running of schools, colleges, and other educational institutions, hotels and restaurants, operation of cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums and sports complexes will also not be allowed.

Social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings are prohibited and religious places will continue to be closed. However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for emergencies and for select needs as permitted on a case-by-case basis by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

For purposes of enforcing the lockdown for an additional fortnight beyond Sunday, India has been divided into green, orange and red zones.

Green Zones are districts where no COVID-19 infections have been reported at any time or places with no positive cases in the last 21 days, Normal life will fully resume in the Green Zones from Monday. The only prohibitions there will be on activities that are not allowed on a pan-India basis.

Red Zones are those with high number of active COVID-19 cases, where doubling of confirmed cases is frequent, areas determined by feedback from testing and surveillance. Restrictions will continue to be severe in these districts.

Orange Zones fall between high infection zones and nil cases of active COVID-19. Limited personal public transport, such as taxis, and private vehicles with very restricted number of passengers will be allowed to move in Orange Zones.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare here announced this evening that India’s COVID-19 cases had touched 35,365 of whom 9,065 patients had recovered. There have been 1,152 deaths, leaving behind the number of active cases at 25,148.