With four days to go for the extended Covid-19 lockdown in India to end, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday said that new guidelines which will give considerable lockdown relaxations will be announced soon.

The Centre on Wednesday gave clear indications that the ongoing nationwide lockdown will be extended beyond May 3 but with “considerable relaxations” to people and services in “many districts”.

A spokesperson from MHA tweeted, “New guidelines to fight Covid-19 will come into effect from May 4, Details regarding this shall be communicated in the days to come.”

In a series of tweets, the Union Home Ministry said it has held a comprehensive review meeting on the lockdown situation in the country and has found that there have been tremendous gains and improvements in the COVID-19 situation due to the lockdown till now.

The guidelines, issued under the Disaster Management Act by the Union Home Secretary, specified the people and services exempted from the lockdown.

The home ministry spokesperson also said to ensure that these gains are not squandered away, the lockdown guidelines should be strictly observed till May 3.

The home ministry’s tweets tagged the Prime Minister’s Office, Home Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Health with a hashtag “#StayHomeStaySafe”.

The Telangana government has already extended the lockdown till May 7 while the Punjab government extended it for two more weeks beyond May 3.

Several chief ministers, who attended a meeting convened by the prime minister on Monday, have sought the extension of the lockdown as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the country.

Several chief ministers, who attended a meeting convened by the prime minister on Monday, have sought the extension of the lockdown as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the country.

The number of COVID-19 hotspot districts in India on Wednesday has come down to 129 from 170 a fortnight ago, but in the same period the number of infection-free districts or green zones too decreased from 325 to 307.

The government has already allowed industrial activities in rural areas with conditions. Similarly, apart from the shops for the essential commodities, standalone business establishments of non-essential goods were also allowed to open during the lockdown.

However, markets, malls, restaurants, parlor, liquor shops continue to remain shut.

Meanwhile, with 1,813 fresh novel coronavirus cases reported in the last 24 hours in the country, India’s confirmed cases increased to 31,787, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare data. The death toll in the country also rose to 1,008 after 71 more patients died due to the highly contagious disease since yesterday.