Two more special trains for migrant workers from Kerala today

As the Centre extended the nationwide lockdown, for two weeks, starting May 4, the number of cases in India on Saturday crossed the 37,000 mark, taking the tally to 37,336. The toll stood at 1218 with 71 more deaths recorded in last 24-hours. The lockdown, which was initially planned for 21 days starting March 25, has now been extended for the third time.

The Union Home Ministry also issued a set of divided districts in the country into 'red', 'orange' and 'green' zones as per the doubling rate and number of cases. At least 130 districts are in the red zone, 284 in orange and 319 in green. Metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad are in the red zone. The government said it could be possible to relax restrictions in red and orange zones.

While Maharashtra remains the worst- affected states with over 11,000 deaths and 485 deaths, Kerala, for the first time in over one month, reported zero new cases of Coronavirus on Friday. Kerala, which was the first state in India to have Coronavirus patients, has seen the slowest rise in numbers in the last month among states with large caseloads. Right now it has 497 confirmed cases, and just three deaths.

On the global front, the coronavirus has claimed at least over 235,000 lives and infected over 3.3 million people, according to a tally by John Hopkins University. The United States continues to be the worst-hit, with over 10,00,000 cases and over 64,000 deaths.

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)