The number of hotspot districts comes down to 129 from 170 in a fortnight. But the number of infection-free districts or green zones too decreased from 325 to 307. During this time, the number of non-hotspot districts, also known as orange zones, increased from 207 to 297.
The MHA on Friday, while extending the lockdown for two more weeks till May 17, lifted many restrictions in green and orange zones. There are no restrictions on sale of non-essential items by e-commerce platforms in green and orange zones, a home ministry spokesperson said, adding barber shops and salons are also allowed to open in these areas.
The Union health ministry has listed 130 districts in the country in red zone, 284 in orange zone and 319 in green zone on the basis of incidence of cases of COVID-19, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback. Rediff Labs has mapped all the red, orange and green zones across the country.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
It is likely the government will divide the country into different zones during the proposed extended period of lockdown and might permit a few services to function in safe zones.
Principal Secretary of the state health department Bibek Kumar, in his letter to the secretary of the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday, described the list as "an erroneous assessment" and said Bengal, keeping in view the parameters set by the Centre, has earmarked four "red" zones -- Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.
In Jammu region, three districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua are in red zone.
In a zone-wise classification of districts in the country, the Union health ministry has designated all 11 districts of Delhi as red zone. The city has 272 wards.
He also said that the PM did not speak about ending the lockdown, which remains in force till May 3. Singh Deo took part in the meeting with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. "The PM said that spike in cases could happen in June and July so the coronavirus will be among us for a long period and (present) activities must be done keeping this in view," the health minister said.
On April 24, the government had increased the working hours to 12 from 8 hours per day to reduce the requirement of workers in all the registered factories, in view of the coronavirus spread.
This comes after the ministry of home affairs issued guidelines for the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown, giving power to states and union territories to delineate red, green and orange zones as per the COVID-19 situation taking into consideration the parameters shared by the union health ministry.
Top cricketers like Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane will have to wait longer to resume individual training in Mumbai due to its status of being a coronavirus red zone, which rules out opening of sports facilities in the city for the time being. The Maharashtra government has allowed opening of stadiums for individual training in green and orange zones without spectators.
He said the lockdown rules will not be relaxed in haste.
In containment areas, movements of people is totally banned and essential services are delivered at the doorsteps.
Ola and Uber said they have resumed services in areas within orange and green zones, and have introduced requirements like wearing masks to ensure safety of riders and driver partners.
A limited number of activities will remain prohibited across the country, irrespective of the zone, including travel by air, rail, metro and inter-state movement by road, running of schools, colleges, and other educational and training/coaching institutions.
The Centre has announced an extension for two more weeks in the nationwide lockdown. However, several relaxations will be allowed as per zones.
According to officials, Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Assam and Telangana wanted the lockdown to be continued, some of them wanted the powers to decide the zoning of districts -- green, orange and red -- as per the COVID-19 situation.
Here is the list of what will be opened and what will be closed in the state.
In a communication to the chief secretaries of the states and Union territories, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the guidelines for the fourth phase of the lockdown were issued after taking the views of the states, following a video-conference held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with chief ministers on May 11.
It also said the recovery rate of coronavirus cases in India stood at 38.39 per cent. Referring to data from World Health Organisation situation report, the ministry said 45,25,497 COVID-19 cases have been reported till Monday which is about 60 cases per lakh population.
Day 1 of the relaxations saw scores of people hitting the roads in their four wheeelers and two wheelers in various parts of the state, including coronavirus hotspots, and there was confusion galore over the easing of nroms.
The state has decided that from Monday it will allow the plying of private buses along with the opening of electronics, stationery, tea stalls, and paint and hardware stores, reports Avishek Rakshit
"We have decided not to allow people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu till May 31, but allowed in stages (staggered manner)," the CM said said.
In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced new relaxations such as resumption of intra-district transportation in 25 districts after a hiatus of nearly two months. Maharashtra Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta has issued an order notifying extension of the lockdown, an official said.
The Karni Singh Range in New Delhi will be divided into four risk zones to ensure that Olympic-bound shooters can safely resume training at a two-month long national camp which will be conducted from Thursday in a bio-bubble to ward off the COVID-19 threat.
The focus will definitely shift towards more meaningful trips than the kind of micro trips we were into before, says Varun Arora.
States and Union Territories have been given the powers for delineation of Red, Green and Orange Zones as per COVID-19 situation, the MHA said. All shops, except those in containment zones and malls, will be allowed to open from Monday with staggered timings during lockdown 4.0, it said.
The govt said that states have been asked to classify districts which have reported a higher number of cases as hotspots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hotspots, and green zones where no cases have been reported.
Medical experts feel an aggressive containment strategy in red zones and insulation of green zones is a must while giving relaxations.
Shardul Thakur hit a local ground at Boisar in Maharashtra's Palghar district along with some domestic players.
Scores of employees took to social media to express disappointment and said they were asked to resign over WhatsApp calls. On Twitter, some said they had been asked to resign by May 31 and that there was no severance package and salary would be paid only for May.
Top companies across sectors -- automobile maker Maruti Suzuki, consumer electronics giant Samsung to IT giant Infosys -- have reopened factories and offices as India took its first steps towards resuming economic activity after weeks under a near-total coronavirus lockdown.
The development comes after a recent notification from the Union home ministry, which has permitted companies to resume manufacturing operations and reopening of shops in red, green and orange zones with certain riders.
A total of 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories.
Tokyo -- the songs Japan, Love In Tokyo and Sayonara from the 1966 Hindi film automatically pop up in the mind -- is buzzing and crowded like any other metropolis, discovers Deepa Gahlot. The modern apartment blocks are built cheek by jowl, so close together that one can open the window and borrow sugar from the neighbour in the next building. One of the fears of the Indian traveller is the unavailability of vegetarian food. Every city and town in Japan has an array of Indian restaurants that serve every variety of cuisine, right from Gujarati to Punjabi to Andhra and Kerala meals.
But still we have prepared the whole country for the worst situation, the Union health minister said.
Heavy rains had battered the metropolis on Sunday and Monday as well.
The ministry of home affairs, however, said there was a need to maintain a strict lockdown till May 3 so that the gains are not squandered away.
Cipla is among the three Indian companies that signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences to make and distribute the latter's repurposed Ebola drug Remdesivir in 127 countries including India.
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