Coronavirus in India Live updates: With the third phase of the nationwide lockdown slated to be lifted in a week on May 17, the number of coronavirus cases in the country are yet to see a downward trend. The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases has neared the 63,000-mark including 2,109 deaths and 19,358 recoveries. Of the 62,939 cases, 41,427 are active.

Though Covid-19 cases are doubling at a faster pace into the first week of the third phase of the lockdown, the general sentiment in the government appears to be against rolling back the relaxations towards a gradual un-lockdown. The nature of high-level meetings within the government and new advisories issued for Covid-19 management in the past fortnight testify to this. On Saturday, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued guidelines on “restarting manufacturing industries after lockdown” to states. While most of them deal with safety protocols regarding restarting industrial processes — coming days after the Visakhapatnam factory disaster — the guidelines also cover sanitisation, health checks and quarantine-related aspects covering workers.

Globally, there are over 4 million coronavirus cases, with deaths exceeding 2,79,000. Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a conversation with ex-members of his administration. Boris Johnson will unveil a virus alert system, similar to the color-coded terror-threat scale, in a Sunday address to Britain that will set out some conditions for removing restrictions on the economy.