Friday, March 29, 2024

Covid-19: India extends lockdown to May 31

The new guidelines allow commerce and industry to reopen across much of the country. Photo: Shaheen Abdulla/Maktoob

India extended its nationwide lockdown due to corona scare to May 31, as cases exceeded 90,000. The fourth phase of lockdown will have considerable relaxation in areas with low numbers of cases, according to an order from the interior ministry.

India’s lockdown, introduced on March 25 and extended several times, had been due to expire at midnight on Sunday. Last week India surpassed China in the number of Corona cases although death toll remains much lower than China and the US.

India has been detecting almost 4,000 cases every day for the last few days.

Reopening the economy

Shopping malls, cinema halls, schools, colleges, hotels and restaurants, and religious and political gatherings will continue to remain prohibited. Domestic and international flights and metro rail will remain out of bounds for the general public as per the revised guidelines.

The government has allowed inter-state movement of buses and private vehicles with the consent of the involved states. The move will greatly ease public transportation and is likely to come to immediate help of migrant labour on the roads.

The night curfew, between 7 pm and 7 am, will continue in all zones.

Almost close to two months, the plight of millions of migrant workers in India continues across India further erupting Clashes between police and stranded migrants.

In Rajkot in the western state of Gujarat, more than 1,500 migrant workers blocked roads, damaged more than a dozen vehicles and threw stones at police on Sunday, after two special trains that were supposed to take them home got cancelled, Reuters report.

At least 23 migrants were killed trying to reach their homes on Saturday when a truck crashed in northern India, taking the toll of death of fleeing migrants

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