London — The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs issued on order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to further extend the Lockdown in the country for another two weeks.

The lockdown in India was supposed to end on May 4.

In fact, India’s big cities will stay under tight restrictions after a nationwide lockdown ends on Sunday, while areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus will be allowed to resume some activity, according to the government letter and state-level officials, Gulfnews reported.

Indian authorities are trying to chart a path out of the world’s biggest lockdown, imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 25, which they credit with preventing an exponential surge in coronavirus infections.

In the letter, sent by Health Secretary Preeti Sudan to regional officials and reviewed by Reuters, the authorities set out plans to map the country into red, orange and green zones, depending on the local severity of the outbreak.

India’s biggest and most economically-important cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad, would all be classed as red zones, infection hotspots, and kept under strict lockdown.

To qualify as a green zone, eligible for quicker lifting of restrictions, an area would have had to report no new infections for three weeks. The classifications would be “dynamic” and updated at least weekly as conditions change, Sudan wrote.

India has reported more than 35,000 cases and 1,147 confirmed deaths from the virus. The official toll is far lower than in the United States and many European countries.