Centre will allow relaxations to Coronavirus lockdown in many districts from May 4: MHA

A review meeting was held in this regard on Wednesday following which the MHA announced that the lockdown guidelines now in effect should be strictly observed till May 3.

"MHA held a comprehensive review meeting on the #lockdown situation today. There've been tremendous gains & improvement in the situation due to lockdown till now. To ensure that these gains are not squandered away, the lockdown guidelines should be strictly observed till 3rd May," a tweet from the spokesperson of MHA read.

"New guidelines to fight #COVID19 will come into effect from 4th May, which shall give considerable relaxations to many districts. Details regarding this shall be communicated in the days to come," another tweet confirmed.

Meanwhile, the central government on Wednesday allowed all stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students with no Coronavirus symptoms to head back to their home states.

The order came from the Centre as the country is set to partially exit from the lockdown mode in less than a week's time.

All stranded people will be screened at the beginning of their journey as well as at their destination.

Moreover, the travellers will have to remain in home or institutional quarantine on arrival following the guidelines of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The lockdown, which was initially called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Mar 24 for 21 days, had led to a humanitarian crisis with several migrant workers stranded at various parts of the country triggering a panic nationwide.

Though the respective state governments as well the Centre had repeatedly assured of enough food supply for all, the migrant workers took to their feet to cross state borders.

In a more worrying situation amid the lockdown, which was later extended to May 3, the migrant workers allegedly being motivated by some false social media posts and news reports gathered outside Mumbai's Bandra railway station to head back to their homes creating chaos and flouting the social distancing norms.

As per IBNS sources, 101 buses with more than 2,500 students will come to West Bengal. The buses will reach three zones of West Bengal, Kolkata, Siliguri and Asansol.

Though some more relaxations are expected to be given by the Centre in green zones (which has a dearth of any Covid case), the red and orange zones (which have active Covid cases) are likely to have lockdown activated.

Highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases:

However, the Coronavirus situation remains grave as India witnessed a new record of highest single-day spike with 1,887 new cases and 71 fresh deaths.

As per the latest data from Union Health Ministry, the total cases reached 31,787 while deaths crossed 1,000-mark and stood at 1,008.

Maharashtra reported 728 fresh cases and 31 more deaths in past 24 hours, making the state worst-affected with 9,318 cases and 400 deaths.