New Delhi, May 1, 2020: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) today issued order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to further extend the Lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4 or till May 17.

MHA 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 in the letter dated April 2020, issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The 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 Health Ministry with the States and Union Territories (UT) 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 districts included by Health Ministry in the list of Red or Orange Zones.