Coronavirus Pandemic LIVE Updates

A policeman wearing a protective mask walks inside a shelter set up for migrants during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai.

Four migrant workers were killed and 15 injured when a bus they were travelling in from Solapur to Jharkhand crashed into a truck in Maharashtra's Yavatmal early morning today. In another accident, three migrant labourers were killed and over 12 injured after a vehicle carrying them overturned on the Jhansi-Mirzapur highway last night. About 17 people were travelling in the vehicle and the injured have been admitted to hospital. The accidents are the latest in a series of similar tragedies involving migrant workers who have been walking miles to get home in face of the Covid-19 lockdown extension in the country.

The nationwide tally of Covid-19 cases crossed one lakh yesterday with more people testing positive for the virus in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and other states even as a much-relaxed fourth phase of the lockdown began with restarting of market complexes, autos, taxis and inter-state buses in various parts of the country. The death toll crossed the 3,000-mark.

With an aim to reboot numerous locked down economic activities, authorities across the country ordered reopening of markets, intra-state transport services and even of barber shops and salons in some states, barring in containment zones. However, schools, colleges, theatres, malls and religious gatherings are among those that would remain shut down, at least till May 31.

India has been under a lockdown since March 25, which was first supposed to be for 21 days or toll April 14, but was later extended till May 3, then further till May 17 and now for another two weeks till May 31.

However, a number of relaxations have been given in the current fourth phase, while states and union territories have also been granted significant flexibility for deciding the red, orange or green zones in terms of the quantum and severity of the virus spread.