Andhra Pradesh govt to decide on Centre's guidelines on relaxing lockdown conditions on May 4

With the Centre issuing specific guidelines relaxing various restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, to be enforced from May 4, the Andhra Pradesh government said it would take a call on the implementation of latest norms on Monday.

"The Group of Ministers will meet here tomorrow and take a decision on how to implement the Centre's new guidelines on lockdown," Deputy Chief Minister (Health) A K K Srinivas said.

Of the 13 districts in the state, five are in the red zone, seven in orange and only one in the green zone. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, during his daily high-level review meeting on coronavirus on Sunday, asked people to "stay where you are" as only migrant workers were permitted to undertake inter-state travel.

"The lockdown relaxation is limited only to migrant workers, so others (hailing from the state and stranded in other states) should stay where they are and not rush to the (inter-state) borders. They should not undertake any journey as it could increase the virus spread," he cautioned.

Briefing reporters in the evening, the Deputy Chief Minister said there were about two lakh persons in AP, including tourists, migrant workers and students, currently stuck in other states.

"We are preparing quarantine centres with one lakh beds so that they don't face any problem on returning to the state. The Chief Minister asked us to prepare clear guidelines in this regard and directed the Chief Secretary to release required funds," Srinivas said.

The state government would bear the cost of travel and food to send migrant workers of other states back home from AP. There were 12,794 migrant workers from other states currently lodged in various relief camps in AP. Meanwhile, Principal Secretary (Transport) M T Krishna Babu, who is the special officer overseeing the movement of stranded persons told media that they were communicating with other states to send their people back home.

"Once we get the consent from those states, we will arrange special trains and send those people to their respective destinations. These special trains will run with 1200 passengers each, only from point to point without any stops in between," the senior official said.