PMO holds meeting on easing lockdown after April 20

New Delhi: Amid surging COVID-19 cases across the country, the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) reportedly held a meeting and discussed issues relating to partial relaxing of curbs from April 20. Earlier on Tuesday, PM Modi, while announcing the extension of lockdown till May 3, hinted at easing of  restrictions in places where there is no hotspot after April 20.

The meeting focused primarily on getting workers back to factories. Besides, the officials also discussed the systems and processes the state governments would need to adopt for the effective implementation of the guidelines, as laid out by MHA, for a partial exit from the lockdown.

Till 20th April, all districts, localities, states will be closely monitored, as to how strictly they are implementing norms. States which will not let hotspots increase, they could be allowed to let some important activities resume, but with certain conditions”, PM Modi had said on April 14.

A day after, MHA issued a fresh set of guidelines for the second phase of lockdown, listing out a number of relaxations that will come into effect from April 20. The objective of the revised guidelines was to consolidate the gains achieved during the first phase of lockdown and further slow down the spread of COVID-19 and at the same time provide relief to farmers, labourers and daily wage earners.