Lockdown extended for two weeks

News Desk

Lucknow: Lockdown has been extended for two more weeks. This is second time that India has extended lockdown to curb coronavirus cases since it came in to implementation from March 25.

The first lockdown was for 21-days then for two weeks and then again two weeks, that shall come in to effect from May 4.

After a comprehensive review, and in view of the Lockdown measures having led to significant gains in the COVID-19 situation in the country, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India issued order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 on Friday to extend the Lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4.

The MHA has also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in 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 relaxations 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. Green Zones 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 Zones 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 ministry of health and family welfare 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.

Key districts that fall in Red Zone are Agra, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Kanpur Nagar, Moradabad, Firozabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Bijnor, Amroha, Sant Kabir Nagar, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur, Mathura, Bareilly.